Cybertronian Alliance: Battle for Algol
by Whispatchet
Summary: [UPDATED: CHAPTER EIGHT] The planet Algol is in the mist of a war... make that TWO wars...
1. The Planet Algol

The planet Algol; Battleground for a great war, one that has lasted many years. The Algolian Army, who battle with giant robots called Mektons, fight to protect their planet from the invading forces of the Aggendi invaders. Many had called the period of unrest the Mekton War. Some still do. But as a chain of events lead to change, the planet of Algol left the Mekton War, and entered the Cybertronian Alliance.

Fleeing from a war of their own, a group of intelligent robots the size of Mektons called the Transformers came to Algol. The Autobots, a group of kind, peace-loving Transformers, joined forces with the Algolian Army, promising to help them as much as they could, and at the same time, their opponents, the Decepticons, made a pact with the Aggendi.

In the first years of the Cybertronian Alliance, a special operations base was built, high in the mountains in the tropical part of Elara to make working with the Transformers easier, built so they and the Mektons could walk around freely. It was surrounded by lush greenery; palm trees, and other tropical plants. Near the base was a small lake, kept full by a waterfall that roared down the mountains to the base's northern side.

Two commanders hold power in the base; the leader of the Algolian Army, Commander Bane, and the Autobot Leader, Optimus Prime. Optimus was reluctant to accept control of the Alliance when it was first offered to him by the current Commander Bane's father, the first Commander Bane. But in the end, as his new human friend lay on his deathbed after being fatally wounded in a battle, Optimus accepted, and gave his word to battle the Aggendi and the Decepticons, until both their people could live in peace.

Although it took some negotiation, the current Commander Bane took his father's place as Commander of the Algolian Army, answering only to Optimus Prime.

After a few years of evenly matched combat with their enemies, a small group of Algolian soldiers that were patrolling the desert near the capitol of Elara found something buried in the sand. It was a Mekton, one of unfamiliar design. It was shipped to the base in the mountains, so it could be used in battle. When the strange Mekton arrived, the mechanics were faced with a challenge. The new Mekton, which had red and black armour, had a strange cockpit. No one could figure out how it worked. So, after many tests and trials, the new Mekton, which had been identified as Blood Raven by a panel on the inside of its cockpit, was reconfigured, and the cockpit modified.

Yet even after all the modifications that it had undergone, the Blood Raven proved unpilotable. Many elite pilots tried and failed to use the Raven in a standard training routine, but ended up stumbling around, looking truly foolish. The mech was almost always in the repair bay, with the technicians working hard to repair major damage. Commander Bane was considering decommissioning it. But then, a young appeared, with hair the colour of ivory and a name that had been taken from the goddess of destiny.

A/N: Okay! Transformers are here! If there is stuff that you really don't understand, please ask me. I don't mind. The Mektons and the planet Algol are part of a RPG that I play called Mekton Zeta: Algol's Nightmares. And the original MZ was a pen-and-paper RP by R. Talsorian Games. Ja Ne!


	2. The Young Pilot

"Alright kiddo, you're ready to go. Show us what you can do."

Chasidy Rhoads, age 17, sat in the cockpit of the most temperamental Mekton on the base. The young girl hadn't even been born when the Transformers arrived on Algol and took the battles to new heights. But Chasidy had only ever seen low-level Autobots around, like her friend Sideswipe. Seeing Optimus Prime or the Vice Commander Jetfire in the hallway was a rare thing, and catching even a glimpse of them was considered an honour amongst the pilots.

Chasidy looked out the open cockpit. The Blood Raven's cockpit was in its head, and it opened in the side. That meant you were pretty much out of options if the mech died and landed on that side, but no one saw it as a problem, considering that no one could pilot the thing properly anyway.

Reaching over to the controls in front of her, Chasidy pressed the button to close the cockpit, and watched as the door shut tightly beside her. She was alone in her own little world. Kicking the mech into high gear, Chasidy manoeuvred the Blood Raven out of the Mech Bay and into the open air.

The rush was amazing. The giant mech moved like no other she had ever piloted before, and it reacted so smoothly to her slightest touch of the controls. It made her wonder why no one else could pilot it. Chasidy soared around the arena, flipping and twisting the Raven's sleek mechanical body like a gymnast, dodging the training drones and their attacks easily, before blasting them with one of the Raven's powerful weapons. The Raven landed softly on the floor of the area as the final drone crashed to the ground. Chasidy turned it around and looked down at the destroyed drone at the mech's feet.

"Easy." She said to herself with a smirk.

_"Nice work Chasidy."_ Commander Bane's voice said through the communicator. _"You've done very well as usual. Well, bring it in."_

Chasidy nodded, ignoring the fact that the Commander couldn't see her, and piloted the Raven back into the Mech Bay.

When she got there, she froze in shock. Optimus Prime was in the Mech Bay. He was standing near the large doorway, with Commander Bane and three other figures next to him.

"You did very well." Optimus said. "You are an excellent pilot."

Chasidy's mouth dropped open. Not only was Optimus there, but he had spoken to her too. And it was verbal praise to boot! Chasidy suddenly felt like the luckiest person on all of Algol.

"Thankyou, very much sir!" She stuttered.

Optimus nodded.

"Chasidy!" Said a voice from closer to her.

She looked down, and saw a small blue and black mech standing at the Blood Raven's feet.

"Hi Terra!" Chasidy said happily, making the Blood Raven kneel down so she could see the small mech better. The little mech beamed.

Terradive, or just Terra, was a small mech that Chasidy had found and repaired. He followed her everywhere, and was her best friend. Although he was never in combat, he was equipped with a small assortment of weapons. Chasidy tried to not change his construction as much as she could during his repairs, so no one could figure out why he had weapons in the first place; even he didn't know.

Bane coughed loudly, grabbing everyone's attention. "Yes, well." He said, looking up at the Blood Raven. "You've done well, but you can dock the mech and get out of it now."

Chasidy could have sworn that Optimus sighed at what Bane said. She shook her head, and stood the mech up.

"Yes sir." She said, moving the Blood Raven to its dock, and watched as a set of mechanical arms came down from the ceiling, and clamped onto the mech's arms, legs and torso to hold it in place, before reaching over to the door control.

Terra ran up a set of metal stairs that connected to the raised platform that gave access to the cockpits to meet his friend. On the ground, Bane was looking up at the Blood Raven impatiently.

"She sure is taking her sweet time." He growled.

"You're being awfully hard on her Commander." Optimus pointed out, looking down at the human, whose face had just taken on a crimson hue.

"I have to be hard on her Prime. Not many people approve of pilots her age, and the fact that she is a woman makes the situation even more dubious. She has to measure up to all the regular pilots." Bane answered, taking a few steps closer to the Blood Raven.

"In other words, the male pilots." Optimus said darkly, narrowing his optics with disproval.

"Oh don't give me that Prime. We are in the middle of a war. I can't afford to have pilots that can't pull their weight." Bane paused, and looked up at the Blood Raven again. "What is she doing up there. Chasidy, you were supposed to get out of that thing!" He shouted.

Up in the cockpit, Chasidy was trying to get out, but couldn't.

"That's weird." She muttered, pressing the door release button again. "Why won't the door open?"

She could hear Terradive moving around on the platform next to the cockpit on the other side of the door.

"Chasidy? Are you alright?" He was calling.

Getting frustrated, Chasidy banged her fists against the inside of the door. She fell back into her seat, and looked out at Optimus through the Raven's optics. She looked down at his feet, and saw Bane changing to a dark red. She sighed. Every one knew that when the Commander changed colour, he was not in a good mood.

It was at this point that she took the time to realise who the other two people in the Mech Bay were. One was a tall man with dark red hair. His name was Dom, and he was another pilot. He was only a few years older than she was, but the other pilots always seemed to like him more. The other person was a girl. Her name was Sally, and she was also a pilot. She was the bouncy type, who always popped up and talked loudly to others.

"I wonder why they're here?" Chasidy muttered to herself.

Suddenly, Chasidy felt a strange tingle shoot up her spine. Slightly alarmed she looked around the cockpit, and saw that the vast array of lights and screens and glowing buttons just died. Now not only did she feel weird, but she was in the dark too.

"Great." She muttered.

Before she could say anything more, Chasidy unexpectedly felt something against her feet. She looked down, and saw a strange liquid that almost looked like melted silver, filling the bottom of the cockpit and rising steadily. She shivered as it touched the bare skin on her legs. It was cold, but the longer it touched her, the more it felt like it was going to burn through her. She pulled her knees to her chest to pull her legs out of the stuff, but it was rising too quickly. It engulfed her lower torso, and it was the weirdest feeling she had ever experienced.

Desperately, she moved her feet along the floor of the cockpit, trying to find where the stuff was coming from, but she couldn't find it; she was getting more and more frightened.

Outside, Bane was getting really angry.

"I'm getting really fed up with this!" He yelled, storming towards the stairway. "I'll pull her out of the damned thing myself!"

"Bane, don't!" Optimus urged. "She must have a reason for not coming out. Perhaps she's hurt?"

"Don't be stupid Prime!" Bane said angrily, ignoring the fact that he shouldn't have said that and continuing up the stairs. "How could she be hurt? And she would have said something if she was!"

Back in the cockpit, the silver liquid continued to rise, and Chasidy held her breath as it rose over her face. She kept her eyes tightly shut, not wanting it to get inside her. But that idea didn't last long when something contracted, and squeezed her around her ribs, making her gasp. The silver liquid poured into her and she opened her eyes in surprise. She could feel the strange silver stuff filling her, going into her lungs. It hurt her eyes, which were suddenly useless.

She thought she was going to die. And then, without warning, everything went blank.

* * *

A/N: Well, here is chapter two! I hope my lack of info about Algol and stuff isn't confusing you. Just to be clear, the Transfomers have been on Algol for about 20 years. Anyone who can read or look at a Tellescreen (TV) knows about 'em. To my reviewer of chapter one, I replied to your review only a moment ago, but I've already taken your words in, and they have blossomed into a loverly little plot twist to put in here in a few chapter's time. I'll wait a little while before posting the next chapter, to let people R&R and etc. Till then, Ja Ne!


	3. Taking Control

The tall mech's optics flashed. It leant forward, and began straining against the metal arms holding it in place. The raised platform that both Commander Bane and Terradive were standing on began to shake and shudder in response to the Mekton's movements.

"What on Algol is that girl DOING!" Bane shouted over the sounds of straining metal.

Frowning for several reasons, Optimus stepped closer to the platform and scooped the human and the smaller mech into his hands, just as the platform gave way underneath them. The Autobot stepped back as the whole apparatus collapsed into a heap on the floor of the Mech Bay.

Optimus put his two passengers down, while the Blood Raven continued to strain against the arms.

"Sir!" Dom said, looking up from a monitor on the wall as his Commander jumped off Optimus' hand. "The scanners are only detecting faint life signs in the cockpit of that thing. Something's happened to the girl!"

"Blast it!" Bane cursed, looking up at the struggling mech.

The Blood Raven gave out a loud cry, in a voice none of them had ever heard before, and jerked itself forward, and the metal arms that were holding it shattered and clunked to the floor. It pulled itself to its full height, and pulled the remaining parts of the metal arms off its shoulders before brushing itself off. It turned around and looked through the open doors that led to the open training arena. It started to walk towards the door.

"The damned thing wants to get outside!" Bane hissed, turning to his pilots. "Dom, Sally, get to your mechs! Terradive, shut the bay doors!"

The two pilots bolted towards their Mektons without hesitation, and Terradive ran towards the door controls, worried for his friend.

The thick bay doors slammed shut, just as the Blood Raven reached them. It took a step back in surprise, before pounding the door with the side of its fist.

Curious, Optimus took a step towards the slightly taller mech. Alerted by the sound of Optimus' footstep on the metal floor, the Raven spun around. Optimus froze, unsure of what this unpredictable mech would do.

The two robots watched each other intently, but Blood Raven was the only one who decided to move. It inched closer and closer to Optimus, until it stopped directly in front of the Autobot leader.

For a few long moments, no one moved. But then, as a black mech docked next to the door powered up, the Blood Raven backed away from Optimus, and headed for the slightly damaged door behind it.

Before it reached the door, however, a thinly built mech painted with camouflage print, pulled itself out of its dock and jumped between it and the door. It turned around to go out the other way, but the black mech that it had heard before was already out of its dock and standing on it's other side. The Raven arched its back, preparing for battle, and the other two mechs did the same.

"Wait…!" Optimus started, but it was to late.

The black mech, piloted by Dom, whipped out its weapon and fired. The blast struck the Raven's left arm, just below its shoulder. Clutching the wound with its other hand, the Raven dashed forward, and rammed the black Mekton with its good shoulder. The black Mekton skidded backwards, but kept its balance and punched the Blood Raven away from it. The Raven stumbled backwards, still clutching it's damaged arm, but was promptly kicked from behind by the thin Mekton in camo print.

"That's enough!" Optimus shouted, grabbing the black Mekton's wrist. "You need to stop this, now!"

"Yes sir." Dom said from inside the black Mech, as he lowered his weapons.

The Blood Raven decided not to notice that the two Mektons had lowered their weapons, and pulled out one of it's own. It whirled around, and fired the powerful laser cannon weapon at the thin Mekton near the door.

"Whoa!" Sally yelled as she piloted her mech out of the way of the blast.

The shot struck the door, and left a smoking crater in the thick metal, and a small gap between the two doors. The red and black mech fired again, and again, until it finally tore a Mekton sized hole in the thick metal.

Letting its weapon drop to the ground, the Blood Raven ran for the hole and the outside.

"Don't let it get out!" Bane shouted.

Dom yanked his mech out of Optimus' grip and raised his weapon again. This time, his shot struck the Raven's side tearing a chunk out of its armour. The mech fell to its knees for a moment, but struggled to its feet again and kept moving.

"What's driving this thing?" Dom exclaimed.

Sally's Mekton dived forward, and grabbed one of the Raven's legs, and it toppled over. Dom ran over as well, and pinned the Raven's shoulders to the floor. It continued to struggle, tried to push itself up, or pull itself forward with its arms. But the weight of the two Mektons pinning it down was too much for its weak and damaged body, and it collapsed under them.

"Hold it there!" Bane ordered as he grabbed a communicator from his belt. "I need a tech team and a med team in Mech Bay One. Now!"

In no more than three minutes, two groups of people ran into the Mech Bay, and began fussing over the mech that was lying on the ground. After a short while, the tech team managed to get the cockpit open. When they did, they were shocked at what they saw. Chasidy was lying in the pilot's seat, unconscious, and bleeding from serious wounds; wounds that were identical to the damage that the Blood Raven had taken.

The med team worked quickly, and treated her wounds before shipping her off to the Med Bay, while the tech team set to work putting the Raven in a dock and called in another team to help with the repairs.

As the workers did their jobs, Bane and Optimus stood next to the doorway, watching them as they completed their jobs.

Optimus looked down at Bane. "Must you always resort to violence?" He asked.

"In case you have forgotten, it attacked first. We retaliated." Bane said stubbornly. "But I can't figure out what was making it act like that. I doubt Chasidy was piloting it."

"I am more concerned with her injuries. They're exactly like the damage that the mech had taken. You don't suppose…?"

"Oh don't be ridiculous. It was just a coincidence."

Optimus sighed and looked up at the Blood Raven as it underwent repairs. "Was it?"

* * *

A/N: Thankyou to all my lovely reviewers! I love you all! -Throws sparkles into the air-

Here is a brief preview of chapter 4: Chasidy is in hospital, Optimus is suspisious, Bane is aggitated (No surprises there) and the Autobot VC has a little chat...

Till then, Ja Ne!


	4. Suspisions take Flight

The tall forms of Optimus Prime and his most senior medical officer, Red Alert, loomed over the unconscious body of the young female pilot.

Red Alert had, of course, already inquired as to how the girl became so grievously injured, but the only way that the Autobot Commander could reply was with a simple, and highly irritating 'I don't know'. The question then raised was, 'how could you not know?' but Red Alert decided, quite appropriately, not to voice the question.

Optimus, who had tried to keep his distance from as many of the Algolian people as he could, looked down at the girl through the glass wall of the med bay with a deep sadness in his optics. True, he had only met the girl several minutes ago, but he could not stand to see anyone hurt, especially if that anyone happened to be a fragile human. He frowned to himself and looked over at Red Alert, who still stood beside him, rather than leaving him to wallow in his own thoughts.

"Red Alert," He said quietly.

"Yes sir?" The medic replied, turning to face his leader.

"Has the girl," He started, looking back at Chasidy. "Has the girl been bathed since her arrival in the med bay?"

Red Alert took a full three steps back from Optimus in full-blown surprise at what, at first, seemed like a perfectly innocent question.

"What…" The medic didn't seem to know what the best words were in such a situation. "Whatever made you ask that? Of course she has… by the Algolian nurses." He added, to prove his innocence when it was never questioned.

"I meant specifically, her hair."

With a confused expression across his faceplate, Red Alert turned and looked at the girl. Without any effort, he saw to what his commander was referring; there was a deep stripe of red breaking the ivory of her hair, running down the right side of her head.

"Oh, you were wondering about the stain." Red Alert sighed, relieved that his superior thought no less of him than he had an hour ago. "Yes. The nurses told me that it refused to come out. They also mentioned that it didn't look like a proper stain."

"How so?" Optimus queried, curious how a stain could be deemed 'proper'.

"Well, as with any kind of stain, it only leaves colour where it touches. Unless someone lay her down, and put a stencil over her hair, there is no way that I, or the nurses can fathom for it being so perfectly straight. There are other odd things about that little strip of colour as well."

"Care to explain them to me?" Optimus looked down at Chasidy. She was heavily bandaged. He knew he should be more concerned with her wounds than her hair, but now that the issue had been raised, the conversation just seemed to flow.

"Well, usually, colour is heavier where more of the substance that caused it is applied in one spot, and lighter where there is less. The colour in her hair is perfectly even, like it was painted there. Also, the colour goes all the way to the roots of her hair."

"That's… that's where the hair comes out of her?" Optimus muttered, trying to remember what little he knew of such things.

"Exactly." Red Alert continued. "The nurses have said that it's as if her hair was growing that colour, rather than have been artificially coloured, or blood stained."

"Hmmmm…" Optimus mused, running his optics over the strip for the fifth time in as many minutes.

"Why the curiosity in her hair colour?" the medic asked, looking at the unusual look of suspicion in Optimus' optics.

"That colour…" He muttered, more talking to himself than to Red Alert. "It's the same colour as the armour of the Blood Raven…"

"Are all Transformers paranoid or is it just you?" Asked a voice from the direction of the floor.

Both the Autobots looked down, and saw Commander Bane, in all his bright red glory, standing near them, looking through the floor-to-ceiling pane of glass at the girl.

"I swear Prime, sometimes, you make no sense, and it's not always when you talk about your Cybertronian crap either." He said with half of a sigh.

Frowning, Optimus decided to ignore the 'Cybertronian crap' comment. "Did you have something to say to me, or did you just want to stare at the girl?"

Bane looked up at Optimus with a look that said the Autobot might not know all interpretations of the last half of that sentence. Optimus stared back with one that said he didn't care.

"I came to give you an update on the Blood Raven's repairs." He said with a smirk, the hue of his face lightening a few degrees.

"Most of the more serious damage has been totally repaired." He said smugly, feeling very proud of the technical abilities of his people.

"Why are those nurses taking those bandages off?" Red Alert mused, his voice only loud enough for Optimus to hear. "Those were the really serious wounds."

Optimus couldn't help but let his suspicions rise for what seemed like the hundredth time since laying his optics on the Blood Raven.

"Only a few scraps of minor damage remain. And the technicians think it better to let the Mech sit awhile before tending to the small details." Bane continued, completely oblivious to anything and everything that may or may not be occurring outside of the sphere of his conversation. This obliviousness was a trait that Optimus had noticed that the human Commander tended to exhibit more than was necessary. Whether he chose to portray this mental slowness or not, Optimus could not tell.

"What is nature of these 'small details' may I ask?"

"Oh not much. There is a gash on the lower part of the right arm…"

Optimus' optics spotted the blood-stained bandage on the girl's right arm.

"There are a few scratches on its face."

Optimus counted the bandages on her face.

"And there is a chunk out of its armour on its chest, but all the internal workings are fine."

Optimus stared at the bandages over Chasidy's chest, but then blinked, and found something about the far wall to be very interesting. Female humans did not like to be stared at there.

"So what do you plan on doing next?"

Bane's voice snapped Optimus out of his self-inflicted session of 'shameful staring at the wall'. He looked down at the human, taking note of the fact that Red Alert was no longer standing beside him. No doubt that the medic could not stand being in the company of the infuriating human any longer.

"What do you mean?" Optimus replied.

"Well, what do you plan on doing with that Mekton? Chasidy is the only one that seems to be able to pilot it, but I'd be reluctant to put her in it again after the injuries she sustained the last time she was in it." Bane said. His tone of voice had changed.

Optimus looked back through the glass wall. Upon doing so he saw Red Alert inside the med bay, with one of the nurses looking up at him, talking rapidly.

"I'm not sure what the best course of action to take at this point would be, Bane." Optimus said after a short silence. "We'll have to wait and see what Fate has in store for us."

- - -

At the other end of the base, Dom sat in the cockpit of his Mekton, Coal, and was looking across the Mech bay at the Blood Raven as it sat in its new dock, opposite him. His eyes were narrowed, and he was glaring at the red Mech quite darkly. He hated it. Every circuit, every wire, every piece of blood red armour. He hated the whole damned thing. There was nothing he would enjoy more, than crushing it beneath his Mekton's feet; it almost made him wish he was allied with the Decepticons, just so the opportunity would arise.

Just as the pilot was thinking his evil and treacherous thoughts, the door to the Mech bay opened with a hiss. He looked over, expecting to see Chasidy's pet robot, or one of the Autobots she had befriended coming to see the Mech that had put her in intensive care. Instead, it was the Autobot Vice Commander, Jetfire, who had entered the bay, and obstructed his view of the intolerable Mech opposite him. The Autobot didn't seem to have noticed that the human was there. To Dom's surprise, Jetfire started talking to the Mech.

"So you're the one Optimus told me about." He said dully, looking the Blood Raven up and down. "Blood Raven was your name, wasn't it?"

Dom couldn't figure out why Jetfire was there, or, more to the point, why he was attempting to make conversation with the thing. It's not like it was going to reply…

He looked up at Jetfire again. The white and gold Autobot transformed into some kind of spacecraft, the likes of which he had never seen before. In fact, most of the Transformers turned into vehicles that were unfamiliar and alien to him.

There was a loud _thunk_, as Jetfire took a sudden step backwards. Dom tried as best as he could to see what had surprised the Autobot so, but could not. Damn his small size by comparison!

He couldn't see anything, but just as he leant back in his chair in frustration, he heard a whisper echo through the Mech bay.

_Let me… fly home…_

- - -

The Med bay was almost completely empty. Besides Chasidy, who was under anaesthetic to keep her asleep, the only one there was Red Alert. While the nurses had left the bay, he volunteered to stay behind and keep an optic on the girl; he knew how humans needed more resources to keep themselves healthy than he did.

He busied himself with small tasks, repairing equipment, tidying workspaces, and the like; occasionally casting a glance over at Chasidy, just to make sure.

As he turned his back on her to work on something on the other side of the room, Chasidy's eyes cracked open. They stopped at halfway, the normal blue colour replaced by a dull red. She slowly sat up, and, after a few seconds, swung her legs around and stood up. Her body was bare besides the bandages that covered her chest and a light pair of white underpants.

She slowly plodded towards the door to the med bay. It opened soundlessly, but as it closed behind her, it made a quiet hissing noise, the kind that any normal person would not even notice. But Red Alert noticed. Hearing the sound, he turned around; his optics sweeping the med bay, presuming someone had entered. Seeing no one, he prepared to go back to his work… but then he spotted Chasidy's empty bed.

"What the...?" He exclaimed. "She's… gone?"

- - -

Optimus and Bane were walking through the hallway towards one of the equipment rooms when the message came in.

_/Optimus! This is Red Alert. Come in/_ Red Alert's worried voice said through the communicator.

"What's the matter Red Alert?" Optimus asked, stopping and looking down at his arm where the communicator was located out of habit.

_/Chasidy is gone/_

"What!"

_/She's gone! I don't know what happened! She was under heavy anaesthetics and was asleep! But when I looked up she was gone/_

"How long ago did she disappear, Red Alert?" Optimus demanded.

_/About two minutes ago sir./_ Red Alert's slightly scratchy voice replied.

Optimus pondered the situation for a brief moment. "Stay in the med bay Red Alert. I'm going to need you to stay there, just in the unlikely event that she returns to the med bay."

_/Understood./_

As Red Alert cut contact, Bane looked up at Optimus with a wide-eyed frown. "What do you intend to do?" He asked, his voice filled with menace.

"I intend to find her." Optimus answered, reaching down and picking the human upbefore running down the hallway.

- - -

Jetfire snapped around as the door to the Mech bay opened, and Optimus came bolting in.

"O-Optimus!" He exclaimed, stumbling a few steps away from the commander.

"Jetfire?" Optimus said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Before the white Autobot could answer, an angry cry shattered the brief silence of the room.

"DO YOU MIND PUTTING ME DOWN!"

Optimus looked down at his hand, realising that his fingers were still wrapped around the human commander. Kneeling down, Optimus put Bane on the floor. He stumbled sideways dizzily, before regaining his balance and looking up at Optimus.

"Warn me next time to intend to throw me around like a rag doll Prime! Jeez!"

"Sorry." Optimus said bluntly, only being half as sorry as he should have been.

Bane managed to restrain himself from yelling, but the dark colour of his face gave his thoughts away.

Optimus shook his head at the human, before looking back at Jetfire.

"What are you doing here Jetfire?" He asked again.

"I just came to see the Mech you told me about." Jetfire replied. "Did you hear it too?"

Optimus blinked. "Hear? Hear… what?"

"It!" Jetfire exclaimed, pointing a finger at the Blood raven beside him. "It… it talked!"

Optimus gave Jetfire a sceptical look. "The Blood Raven spoke?" He asked. "Are you sure?"

"You don't have to believe me Optimus, but it did, it really did!"

"Bah!" Bane scoffed. "Your VC's lost his mind! The Blood Raven can't have talked. It would have to be…"

"Intelligent?" Optimus finished, glaring at the human at his feet.

Bane sighed. "Yes. It would have to be intelligent. If it were, we would have known about it long before now. We have run a whole manner of tests…"

"Do you remember that your 'tests' always proved negative when done on one of us? Yet you know full well what the result should have been."

"Yeah, but you guys weren't built by human hands! This is a Mekton Prime!"

"Are you sure?"

Bane's eyes went wide. The question was simple enough, but he seemed unable to answer it. He just stood there, looking up at the Autobot Leader, stupidly opening and closing his mouth, not being able to make any sound come out of it.

Suddenly, the door to the Mech bay opened. Everyone turned towards the door. It was Chasidy.

"Chasidy!" Bane exclaimed, running over to the dazed girl and putting his hands on her shoulders. "What are you doing here?"

Chasidy didn't answer. She just stood there, staring off into space with her dull red eyes.

"Chasidy!" Bane repeated, shaking her slightly.

"Careful Bane!" Optimus urged. "She's still hurt remember."

"I know… I know." Bane hissed, his voice sounding different for the second time that day.

"Get out…" Chasidy whispered.

Bane snapped around and looked at Chasidy strangely. "What?" He breathed.

"Get out… be free… fly home… get out… be free… fly home… get out…" Chasidy continued repeating the same words over and over again, in an unwavering, dull voice.

"Chasidy! Snap out of it!" Bane said loudly, his voice almost pleading, shaking her very gently.

Chasidy showed no signs of having heard him. She ignored all Bane's attempts to get through to her, pushed past him, and plodded forwards, starting to climb the stairs towards the Blood Raven, never changing from the slow pace she had walked to the Mech bay in, her back slightly hunched, and her arms hanging loose in front of her.

All the others could do was watch as she slowly walked up the stairs, unable to stop her. They watched in awe, as the Blood Raven's cockpit opened upon her approach, and then, after she had tumbled forward into the robot, closed behind her.

Chasidy's dull words were still ringing in the air, and it was suddenly joined by another voice; a male voice, which resinated with the robotic accent that the transformers had.

_Get out… be free… fly home… let me fly home…_

There was a loud creaking noise, as the Blood Raven began straining against the metal arms that were holding it in place. Instead of shattering however, they popped open, and the red Mech fell forwards slightly, before standing up straight, glowering at the Mechs and the human in front of it. It said nothing, but gave them a stare that sent chills up their spinal relays. It turned, and headed for the two closed, and newly repaired, blast doors, that were the only thing stopping the Blood Raven from going outside.

Bane looked up at Optimus with his eyes wider than they had ever been before. "Prime," He said after a few seconds. "I am never questioning you ever again."

Optimus didn't look down at him, but nodded in response.

The Blood Raven stopped before the blast doors.

"How does… door open?" It asked.

There was a brief silence, and the Raven's optics shimmered thoughtfully.

"Should be… a switch…" It said, leaning down towards the left side of the door, and running its large fingers down the wall. It quickly found what it was looking for, and the door slid open, letting the light from the setting suns stream inside.

"Door open! Can fly home!" The Raven said happily.

It took a few steps outside, then a set of jets in its feet and another on its back fired up, and the black and red Mech shot into the sky.

Optimus, Jetfire and Bane stood in shock, staring after the Blood Raven. After a few seconds, Optimus shook his head, snapping himself out of it.

"Jetfire!" He said, looking over at the white Autobot, who was still stock-still. "Go after it!"

Jetfire blinked and looked around slightly before looking at Optimus. "Gotcha." He said, before taking off after the red Mech.

- - -

"Hey!"

The Blood Raven soared through the open sky, hardly caring that Jetfire was following him.

"I said, _HEY!_"

Raven halted in the air, and spun around. He watched as Jetfire came to a stop as well.

"Why is the White Flyer following me?" It asked.

"Listen, I don't really know what's going on." Jetfire said, slowly moving closer. "But we can help you! We're the good guys!"

Raven tilted its head to the side. "'Good guys'? I don't understand."

Jetfire resisted the urge to sigh. "We're the Autobots." He said. "We fight for peace and justice and all that good stuff. We're fighting the 'bad guys', the Decepticons, who want to destroy people and conquer worlds. We've teamed up with the humans on this planet, to help them repel the invaders to _their_ planet."

"Autobots… Decepticons… Not Mektons?" Raven asked.

"No, we're not. We're Cybertronians; Transformers."

Jetfire paused, and looked at Raven curiously. "What about you?" He asked. "What… what are you?"

If Raven had a mouth, he would have smiled. "Me?" He said. "I'm alive, White Flyer. I'm alive."

* * *

A/N: Tada! Next; Learning a little bit more about the people and mech's at the Mountain Base. And our first glimpse at the Decepticons, and the things that they're up to. Ja ne till then!


	5. Stuck Together

Jetfire looked at the red Mech hovering in front of him curiously.

"Alive?" He said, unsure of what the Blood Raven meant.

"Alive. But, not working right yet."

Jetfire frowned. "Huh?"

"Not working right. Happens if I get new human… makes me talk funny."

Jetfire blinked in surprise. He hadn't even noticed. But now that Raven had pointed it out, the red Mech was talking in a rather odd way… reminded him of a group of Autobots he had met once.

"But will work right soon. Takes time to fix problem. Girl will help."

Jetfire frowned. He wanted to keep the red Mech talking, get it to trust him so he could take it back to the Mountain Base. But he was also trying to understand what Raven was saying. Riddles and bad grammar; what a charming combination.

"Is the girl alright?" He asked.

"Girl part of me, and I am part of her. We work together."

There was a pause.

"Look, it's my job to take you back to the Base." Jetfire said finally.

"White Flyer can't take me back there!" Raven said desperately, shaking its head and moving backwards through the air.

"Why not?"

"I need to go home! Need to help my friends!"

Jetfire sighed.

"Blood Raven," He said quietly. "The human girl needs to go back to the base. She lives there."

Raven blinked with surprise.

"But… can't move without girl!" It said, trying to convince Jetfire to let it go.

"I can understand that you want to help your friends. But what about helping your planet? Why don't you stay with us, and help us beat the aliens? If we do that your home will be safe from them."

Even as Jetfire was saying it, he didn't believe that the Blood Raven's home would still be intact by the end of the war.

"But…!"

The Blood Raven was cut off as something shot past him and struck the ground below. Both Mechs looked up and saw two figures hovering in the sky above them.

"Well, well, well! What do we have here?" One of them laughed.

"Two Autobots out for a walk?" The other jeered.

Jetfire groaned. He knew exactly who they were, just from their voices.

"Cyclonus and Skywarp." He said bitterly. "What do you want?"

Cyclonus grinned, and he and Skywarp dove at the Mechs below, their weapons blazing. Jetfire swerved out of the way of the shots and counter-attacked, letting his own weapons go off. On a whim, the white Autobot looked down at where the Blood Raven had been when Cyclonus and Skywarp attacked. The red Mech was still there, nimbly dodging their attacks, but not making any move to fight back.

"What the slag are you doing?" Jetfire shouted. "You're built for combat! Fight back!"

Raven looked up at Jetfire curiously. "Not Autobots?" He asked.

"NO! They're Decepticons!"

"Decepticons…?"

Something seemed to go off in the Blood Raven's mind, and he shot forward through the air, heading straight for Cyclonus.

"Whoa!" the Decepticon cried in surprise, trying to get out of the way. He failed.

Raven rammed Cyclonus at high speed, and the helicopter was sent spinning through the air. When he finally stopped himself, he looked back at the red Mech with a look of anger and surprise in his optics. His chest was dented and cracked, and the glass of his windshield was shattered and gone.

"Who the slag are you?" He wheezed, his vocal circuits having been slightly damaged in the collision.

The Blood Raven didn't answer the question. Instead, it pulled out a large gun with a black barrel.

"You Decepticon… you fight alongside the aliens. Aliens attack my home! I hate you!"

Raven fired his weapon at Cyclonus, sending a thick beam of crimson streaking through the air. Cyclonus screamed and let himself drop through the air. The blast shot over the top of him, and collided with the ground a long way away. The explosion was large, and blew trees and other debris into the air and flung them for miles. When it finally died down, there was a huge crater, a gaping hole amongst the green of the surrounding rainforest. Cyclonus stared at the crater with wide optics, unable to believe how much power the red Mech had.

"Hey Cyclonus!" Skywarp shouted, flying over. He had scratches and dents all over him, and was missing chunks of his armour. "Let's get out of here!"

Without even stopping to agree, Cyclonus transformed and took off, with Skywarp in front of him.

As the Decepticons fled, Jetfire looked over at the Blood Raven. It was still hovering below, it's torso rising and falling rapidly, like it was breathing heavily. Concerned, Jetfire flew over, and hovered in front of it.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

The Raven shook its head. "No…" It whispered. "Used too much power… girl hurt…"

The red Mech hunched its back and dropped its gun. The large weapon landed on the ground below, knocking down a few trees as it went. Jetfire moved closer to the other Mech, and let it lean on his shoulder for support.

"Didn't let her help me…" Raven whispered. "She wanted to… I could feel it…but I didn't let her… she was too hurt…"

"What does that mean?" Jetfire asked.

There was a slight pause. Then, without warning, the Red Mech's optics went dull, and it clutched its head in pain.

"What the…?" Jetfire gasped, giving the Raven some personal space.

Something was happening inside the Raven's head; some long unused program booting up and taking effect on the Mech. Jetfire had no idea as to what was happening in front of him. He just stayed still, hoping that the Raven would come out all right.

The event was over as soon as it started; the red Mech let it's arms drop to its sides and its optics lit up once again. Raven looked up at Jetfire with a new energy shimmering in its gaze.

"I'm okay now." It said, a different tenor echoing in its voice. "The human girl and I, we're really stuck together now."

"Hey! Complete sentences!" Jetfire exclaimed.

Raven chuckled. "Yeah. I won't talk funny anymore."

Jetfire nodded, and looked up at the sky in the direction that the Decepticons had fled.

"We should go back to the base before those two get back-up and come back."

Raven shook its head. "I can't go back there." It said.

Jetfire sighed. "We went through this already Raven. Chasidy has to go back there. You have to let her."

"No! I'm not going back, so you might… as well…" Raven trailed off as it fell towards the ground.

"Whoa!" Jetfire cried as he dove down and caught Raven just above the tops of the trees. "What the slag was that?"

"Sorry…" Raven said quietly. "I used so much power before… I don't have much left now…"

"All the more reason for me to take you back to the base." Jetfire said, before heading for the base.

The Blood Raven didn't argue again.

- - -

Cyclonus and Skywarp stumbled over each other as they entered the Decepticon base, falling to the floor with a loud clatter, drawing the attention of all who happened to be near.

"What the heck happened to you two?" One of the ground-based Decepticons, the one named Demolishor, asked. "I thought you were only going on patrol!"

"We were!" Skywarp protested, trying to untangle himself from Cyclonus. "But we patrolled ourselves on to a pair of Autobots and we got our butts kicked!"

"Who was it?" Demolishor asked, leaning down to help his comrades up off the floor, simply because they were blocking the doorway.

"Jetfire, and some red mech who I've never seen before." Cyclonus answered. "It looked really weird…"

Demolishor looked thoughtful. "Do you think it was a Mekton?"

"Bah!" Interjected a new voice from across the room.

The other Decepticons looked over and saw their leader, Megatron, enter the room, very irritated.

"Is something the matter sir?" Demolishor asked, turning to face the Decepticon leader.

"The fact that we are still here is the matter, Demolishor. The Agendi are proving to be hard to work with."

Megatron strode across the room and fell, very unceremoniously, into a chair.

"Although it would be preferable not to work with them at all?" Demolishor asked.

"Precisely. Unfortunately, the slimy reptiles have a superior knowledge about this planet, and these Mekton devices. It would be foolish not to enlist their help."

There was a shared sigh from most of the occupants of the room, followed by an awkward silence.

"So, Cyclonus…" Demolishor said finally, looking over at the injured Copter. "About this red Mech…"

- - -

It was almost funny, seeing Jetfire land in the Mech Bay with the Blood Raven draped over his back, half-conscious.

When he did, Optimus came over and helped Jetfire keep the Mech on its feet, giving it support.

"What did you do to it Jetfire?" He asked.

"Nothing." The VC replied. "It's just wiped out. It lost most of its energy fighting Cyclonus."

"You were attacked?"

"Yeah, but they didn't seem to have planned it. They must have just been on patrol or something."

"Hmmm…"

As the two Autobots started to move the Raven forward, Bane walked up and kicked it, making a small _thunk_ noise ring through the bay.

"You!" He shouted, looking up at the Raven's face. "What have you done to my pilot?"

The tired Mech looked down at the human with half open optics. "She's not your pilot." It said quietly.

Bane's face darkened several shades. "And why is that, dare I ask?"

The Raven paused, wondering if it should say what it was thinking. Ah, what the heck.

"She's _my _pilot. You're too small." It said. "She can't pilot you."

Not only did Bane's face darken to an elegant hue, but also his left eye twitched in rage. He didn't, however, seem to be able to say anything to that.

Jetfire and Optimus on the other hand, thought Raven's comment to be very amusing, with Optimus fighting back his laughter and shaking his head, and Jetfire snickering very audibly.

On the inside, Bane had never felt worse. Not only had a Mekton lipped him off, but the two highest ranked Autobots on the base were laughing at him as well. This was one hell of a day he was having.

"Um, well. Anyway," Optimus said with a laugh in his voice. "Perhaps we should put the Blood Raven down so it can recover."

Raven turned its head and looked at Optimus.

"Who… are you?" It asked.

Optimus seemed slightly shocked at the question. "You may call me Optimus."

"Optimus…" Raven said slowly, letting its head fall against its chest.

"Raven!" Jetfire exclaimed, worried.

"It's alright Jetfire." Optimus said, guiding the two Mechs to the nearby wall. "Let him rest. He'll be okay."

"Seems like you only care about the Mech, rather than Chasidy. Doesn't sound like you Prime." Bane said sternly as Optimus and Jetfire sat the Raven against the wall.

"Not true." Optimus replied firmly. "If the Raven is alright, then Chasidy will be too. They are linked somehow, its obvious. They'll both be fine."

Bane muttered something under his breath, but said nothing more.

Optimus looked over at Jetfire. "What happened out there?" He asked.

"Not much. I was just talking to him, and then Cyclonus and Skywarp attacked us. Full of themselves those two."

"Did you learn anything about Raven?"

"Sorta… Although it has its own thoughts, it can't move unless Chasidy is inside. That's all it told me."

Optimus looked down at it thoughtfully. "So Chasidy is it's main power source?"

"It would seem that way sir. It did say other things, but they were all disjointed, and it was difficult to understand what it was exactly… he was talking like the… oh, who were they…?" Jetfire crossed his arms and closed his optics, trying to remember the group's name. "D… d… d-something-bots…."

"The Dinobots?" Optimus suggested.

"That's them! Those four! I didn't even notice until he pointed it out. But after we chased the Decepticons off, he was talking like the Dinobots _and_ exhausted, so I couldn't understand what he was saying for the greater part of it. Then he suddenly started talking normally before blacking out."

"Why the blazes did the thing have some dinosaur speech impairment?" Bane asked, more talking to it than to Jetfire.

"Raven said it happens when he 'gets a new human'… so it sounds like a program glitch to me." Jetfire answered.

"Perhaps…" Optimus said thoughtfully. "Perhaps there are others out there like the Blood Raven… and he is only one of the earlier models…"

"Or, maybe he's just a screwy mech who has practically handicapped one of my finest pilots!" Bane shouted, storming out of the Mech bay.

Jetfire sighed.

"That man is intolerable…" He muttered.

"He can be." Said a voice from somewhere else in the Mech Bay.

Optimus and Jetfire looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. After a few moments, Optimus spotted Dom, still sitting in the open cockpit of Coal.

"How long have you been sitting there!" Jetfire exclaimed, recoiling slightly.

"Long enough." Dom replied, letting a sly smile creep onto his face. "Don't let the commander's temperament bother you. He has a problem with expressing his emotions."

Jetfire cut in before Optimus could say anything.

"So he's not just obnoxious?"

Dom rolled his eyes. "No, he's not. If you could see him eye-to-eye, you'd be able to tell that he really cares for that girl. Her parents disowned her when she was little, and she was caught sneaking into the base near the town. She wanted to learn more about Mechs. They fascinate her. That's why she has Terradive following her around. The commander has grown to see Chasidy like a daughter. He just has problems with showing it."

Optimus looked down at the Raven again.

"He's right." He muttered. "I've noticed… quite a few times… his tone would change, but only when something happened to Chasidy that he couldn't prevent…"

Dom shrugged. "He's a strange man, that Commander Bane."


	6. We React Together

Blood Raven slowly reactivated his optics. He was leaning against the wall in the mech bay. He could see things moving in front of him, big things… but they were indistinct, like he were looking through frosted glass. The things were arguing, or at least that's what it sounded like to him, but their voices were somewhat distant.

_My optics and audio receptors aren't working properly…_ He thought grimly. _I must really be tired…_

He checked his power reserves. They were almost completely empty.

_Joy. Ah well._

Without a moment's hesitation, the large red and black mech shut his body down, letting his mind slip away to a place inside him that only he knew about.

- - -

Chasidy's mind was blank. It wasn't that she was incapable of thought, but where she was, with her mind somewhat separate from her body, it didn't seem necessary.

It was hard to tell _where_ her mind was at this point exactly, but it was still and quiet. She was quite content.

Suddenly, the slightly transparent girl that represented Chasidy's consciousness in this strange, quiet place perked its head up. She could feel something coming towards her. She could sense it.

She floated backwards slightly as a shape began to from in the space before her. Slowly, details began to fade in, and she could make out what it was.

It was the Blood Raven. Or at least, it was his consciousness. He looked the same as he always did, gleaming red and black armour, powerful weapons, glowing red optics. The only difference was, he was the same size as Chasidy.

**What the…?** She whispered, stopping and wondering at how strange her voice sounded.

The mech tilted his head and looked up at Chasidy. Unlike her, his form was completely solid.

_Hello._ He said quietly. _It's nice to meet you, pilot._

Chasidy blinked in surprise. His voice, it was the same one she had been hearing in her head over the last few hours. It hadn't been saying anything really, and sometimes she caught words or phrases, like "Decepticons" and "White Flyer", but mostly, it spoke to her with emotions, fear, anger, calm, hurt… a great deal of hurt, somehow contained. Oh how she had hated that feeling! She wanted to help whatever it was that was hurting so badly, lend it her strength, her courage…the courage that had helped keep her sane when her parents didn't want her anymore.

She couldn't decide what to say, so she just floated there, staring at the being in front of her.

Raven tilted his head to one side, and moved closer.

_I don't scare you, do I?_ He asked.

Chasidy shook her head. **No…**

_Are you sure?_ The mech urged. _I've scared a lot of my pilots._

**What kind of pilot is afraid of their own mech?** Chasidy huffed.

Although he didn't have a mouth, his face radiated the feeling of a sad smile.

_The people who pilot me, tend to have little control over me._ He said quietly. _Most creatures are afraid of what they cannot control._

Chasidy frowned. **Huh?**

The mech let out a very gentle sigh, and took Chasidy's hands in his own.

_You don't know what I am, do you?_

Chasidy blinked. **A…Mekton?** She said hopefully.

Raven shook his head.

**Then what the hell are you?**

Suddenly, the black, empty world began to shake violently. The trembles seemed to be in the air, and the shook Chasidy like a rag doll. She squealed as the vibrations made her fall forwards into Raven's chest. She was only slightly surprised to discover that the red and black mech had not moved at all. Bloody typical.

He reached out and wrapped his arms around her, and held her close to him as the shaking began to subside.

_I like you, little pilot._ He said, his voice echoing slightly. _What's your name?_

**Chasidy…** The girl replied, squeezing her eyes shut.

_Chasidy… such a pretty name… _

Finally, the world stopped trembling. Chasidy expected the mech to let her go, but his grip didn't even relax. She put her hands on his chest and pushed against his arms with her back.

**Let go!** She cried.

_I'm sorry, but I can't…_

**What? Why?**

There was a long pause. Raven seemed to be thinking very carefully on what he should say to the girl. After all, he knew just what could happen if she got upset now…

_Do you know why everything shook just a moment ago?_ He asked, his voice very soft.

Chasidy gave up trying to push away from Raven, and leant her head against his chest. **No… why?**

_I was reacting._

**Reacting? Reacting to what?**

Raven gave her a slight squeeze. _You._

Chasidy opened her eyes and looked up at the Mech's face. **Me? What did I do? I don't understand.**

_Well, you are human after all. _Came the reply.

The girl was going to reply, when a tingle shot up her spine. She shivered.

_You can feel it too, can't you?_ Raven asked, his voice no more than a pained whisper.

**What… what is it?**

Raven frowned.

_Every mech on Algol… all the Mektons, all the workers, they all have an energy signature. Some signals are stronger than others. _The black and red mech paused. _A mech with a very, very strong signal just came close…_

_- - -_

"WHERE IS SHE?"

A very loud, angry yell echoed through the open door of the mech bay, somewhat startling the two Autobots and the pilot that were still having a conversation there.

A small, human-sized mech with black, silver and blue armour stormed into the bay, followed closely by Commander Bane.

"Where is she, Bane!" The mech demanded, looking back at the human behind him, who looked equally aggravated.

"No one gave you permission to be in here!" Bane retorted. Obviously, the man had had quite enough excitement for one day.

The blue mech, however, did not seem to care about what the human wanted, and, with an angry flash coming from his optics, he grabbed Bane by the front of his coat.

"Where is she?" He demanded again. "Tell me!"

"Hey there's no need for that. Let him go." Optimus said sternly, reaching down and picking the smaller mech up.

Bane slipped out of his coat as Optimus lifted the small blue mech up; its grip on the fabric didn't loosen in the slightest and the human was in danger of being dragged up too. He didn't feel like being in the air again so soon.

"Thanks for that Prime, but it wasn't really necessary." He said, looking up at the Autobot commander.

Optimus was going to give a stern reply, but the notion died as the small mech in his grip started thrashing around and beating the larger robot's fingers with his fists.

"Where is Chasidy?" He roared.

By the far wall, the Blood Raven twitched.

"Where is she?" The small mech continued to yell, but the tone had changed. His cries became less of a demand, and more of a desperate plea. But Optimus kept a firm grip on him.

"Calm down." He said sternly. "Once you calm down, I might tell you what you want to know."

The small mech let go of Bane's jacket, and lent his arms on Optimus' fingers. He looked like he might start to cry.

Bane sighed as he picked his jacket up off the floor and put it back on. "I've known that little mech for three years, and he's normally very quiet. I've never seen him act like this before."

"Well, he seems very worried about the girl pilot." Jetfire said suddenly, reminding everyone that he was still in the room.

Bane shrugged. "That's Terradive for you."

Optimus looked down at the blue mech in his grip. Like Chasidy, the Autobot commander had only met him earlier that day, although, in Terradive's case, it was more 'seen' than 'met'. But he had been told that the small mech and the girl had been together for years, even before they joined the military. Chasidy and Terradive were very close; it was understandable for the mech to be so upset.

"Please…" Terradive said suddenly, looking up at Optimus. "Please, I must know where Chasidy is! I went to the med bay to see her, but she wasn't there! The Autobot in charge there said he didn't know where she was, but one of the commanders might. Please tell me where she is, I beg you!"

Optimus sighed softly. "She's…" the Autobot paused, trying to decide how to say it. "We do know where she is. But you wouldn't be able to see her, even if I told you."

Terradive stared up at Optimus with wide optics. He felt the small mech flinch, as if someone had just kicked him in the midsection.

"She… She's not… not…" He didn't seem to be able to say the words.

"No, she's alright, don't worry." Optimus said quickly, kneeling down to place Terradive back on the ground.

Optimus straightened, and looked over at the red and black mech sitting against the wall. Terradive followed the commander's gaze, and made a slight squealing noise when he spotted the Blood Raven sitting there.

"She is in the cockpit," Optimus said quietly. "And we don't know how to get her out."

- - -

Chasidy shuddered. The strong energy signature was coming closer. Blood Raven was still holding the pilot in a tight grip, but as the powerful energy came closer, he began to flinch slightly as it pulsed against the two of them.

**What kind of mech has this kind of signature?** Chasidy asked desperately. **The Transformers?**

_This signal doesn't belong to a transformer… They feel more like Mektons than anything else… No, I don't recognise this signal… I've never felt anything even close to this…_

**It wouldn't be quite so bad if it was just one stable feeling,** Chasidy admitted. **But it keeps pulsing…**

The girl groaned, and leant her forehead against the cool metal of Raven's armour.

_If this is causing you so much discomfort, perhaps you should leave._

Chasidy's head snapped up and she stared at the mech in surprise.

_If you are not in this place, then you will not feel the energy signatures._

**But I thought you said I couldn't leave!**

Raven chuckled very briefly. _I said that I could not let you go. Even if you are to leave this place, and step out of my cockpit, I'll still have my hold on you. It was that hold that brought you here in the first place._

**I can't leave you to suffer like this**!

_You're more important than me at this point Chasidy. My systems are sensitive to your emotions. If you start to feel bad enough, my body will respond, no matter how little power it has. And if that happens, there's no telling of the harm we could cause._

**But…**

_Chasidy…_ Raven said soothingly, running his onyx fingers through the girl's long ivory hair, seeming to take great delight in simply saying her name. _I appreciate the offer, truly I do. You don't know how much it means to me that you'd want to stay. However. You are still wounded. And I have to recharge my systems. We both have things we must do… things we must do apart._

Chasidy rested her head against Raven's chest. She was getting a headache from the constant pounding of the powerful energy signature.

Raven gave her a gentle squeeze. _It won't be long before we're close again Chasidy. _He whispered. _But promise me… promise me that you will not get back into my cockpit until you are fully healed._

**Yes… alright.**

Raven let out a relieved sigh. _Thankyou. I've recovered enough power to get myself docked. So let's get you out of here…_

_- - -_

Terradive stood in front of the red and black mech with his arms crossed. He was seriously contemplating just getting a blowtorch, and removing the side of the mech's head so he could get his human friend out. Screw keeping the Mekton intact, he just wanted Chasidy out of the damned thing.

Suddenly, Raven's red optics flicked on, and it started to pull itself off the floor. Both Optimus and Jetfire came over to help it up.

"Are you alright?" Optimus asked.

"Yes, yes." The red mech replied in a quiet voice, managing to pull off a wave of dismissal. "No worries."

Jetfire took hold of Raven's left wrist and draped the mech's arm over his shoulders. "You're nuts, did you know that?" The shuttle said, shaking his head slightly. "You'll deactivate yourself if you keep running around on a flat battery."

Raven was about to spit out a witty reply, when he spotted the small mech at his feet.

"So…" He breathed, making no effort to hide the fact that he was staring at Terradive.

The blue mech stared right back. "So." It echoed, giving the larger mech one hell of a glare.

Raven stared at Terradive for a few moments more before slowly turning his head to look at Jetfire. "Help me to a docking bay will ya big guy?" He said with a slight chuckle.

"Sure thing." Jetfire answered, deciding that he liked the strange red mech before helping it into a dock.

Raven looked at Optimus once he was docked.

"Take care of my little pilot for me." He said, before the cockpit on the side of his head opened, and the mech shut off completely. Everyone waited in apprehensive silence.

Terradive was about to run up the stairs to get to his friend, when the young pilot stepped out of the cockpit, clutching her side with her left hand, and a soft smile on her face.

"Chasidy!" Terradive squealed, bolting up the stairs to meet her.

Optimus watched in silence. He was satisfied with how things had turned out. The Autobot commander turned his head and looked at the black Mekton that was docked on the other side of the bay.

Although he didn't know how the human managed to do it without anyone noticing, the male pilot had vanished.

- - -

Elsewhere, a tall figure stood at the edge of a cliff, looking out over the ocean. Several islands were visible from where the giant was standing, including one very large one, which disrupted the sunset glow on the horizon with a shimmering violet dome of energy.

They had long ago learned not to stray too close to that island and its strange energy shield.

Suddenly, the large mech caught sight of something in the sky, heading towards him. For a moment, he let himself feel relieved at the sight of the black and red mechanical bird, but restrained it. He didn't need to express the way he felt like other mechs did. He stretched his arm out, and the bird landed on it with a screech.

The blue mech smiled under his mask as the bird nudged his shoulder with its head; a rare sign of affection between the two.

In the next moment, the bird folded itself into a cassette tape, which the larger robot promptly inserted into the tape deck that made up most of his torso.

Instantly, his mind was flooded with the information that the bird had collected, and he frowned a hidden frown in response.

Megatron would not be pleased with the information, not in the slightest. But, loyal as he was, the blue Decepticon had to relay it.

With a quiet sigh, Soundwave turned on his heel and stalked into the Deception base.

- - - - - - - - - -

Buwahahahaha! It didn't take me quite as long to get this chapter up did it? That is an acheivement in my book.

As an added bonus, the Mekton Zeta Roleplay that this story is based on is now (finally) open! Yay! - http/mzonline. so everyone knows, this is based off the original MZ:AN campaign, which was hosted at invisionfree. The characters, storylines and information has been reviewed and revamped for the new version, which is hosted at Proboards, which the gamemaster is more familiar with. So, if you go there, some details may not be the same, although I am trying to work the new story into here at this point.

I'll get my lazy butt in gear and write chapter 7 ASAP!

Ja Ne


	7. Enter the Dinobots

Soundwave and Demolishor stood on the edge of the room, staring at each other.

The two of them did it often, and some of the other Decepticons had started to think that they could hear each other's thoughts and were having a silent conversation. Cyclonus and Skywarp thought that the two were engaged in an endless staring competition that would resume every time they saw each other.

Needless to say, _their_ idea was hardly the correct one.

It wasn't as if the two would stand in front of each other and stare into the other's optics until something exploded and stole their attention. Most times, as it was in this case, they stood a fair distance apart, their bodies facing different directions, only their heads turned. And it was very rare that they even looked at each other's optics.

Demolishor found Soundwave's torso to be particularly fascinating these days. He wondered how the four smaller Decepticons fit inside. "The Cassettes" they were called. It made the shorter of the two curious about where the group had acquired their alternate modes, as the people on Algol certainly didn't use reel-to-reel tapes to record things. And what did the Cassettes _do_ in there? He wondered if he should ask one of them someday. Some days, he wished he already had.

Soundwave on the other hand, deemed Demolishor's entire being to be worth looking at. Sometimes he would look at the four missile turrets that protruded from his shoulders, sometimes his joints, and sometimes his fingers, which were guns themselves. In this particular instance, he was looking at his face. The tall blue Decepticon decided that Demolishor had a very interesting face. He liked how his green optics were mismatched in size, and he rather liked the colour that his face was.

Really, the two just liked looking at each other. It was as close to friendship as they were ever going to get.

True, Demolishor was very close to Cyclonus, and Soundwave had his Cassettes, but that was nothing quite like what they had with each other.

Another thing about it was, they didn't just do it any old time. Normally, it happened when something was happening around them, and they didn't particularly want to pay attention to it, lest it cause them harm.

This was definitely, one of those times.

Soundwave and Demolishor were wise to tell Megatron what they had to tell him in this particular part of the base. Had it been anywhere else, he would have destroyed a major power distributor, resulting in a very dark underground base, or punched a hole in the seaside wall, flooding them with seawater. Or both.

Upon realising this, they both indulged in a slight shudder. Dark and wet. What a simply charming situation that would have been.

Now however, Megatron was safely venting his rage in one of the training areas, almost gleefully splintering the palm trees with his fists and crushing the ferns underfoot, which had taken Wheeljack months to gather and cultivate.

_Wheeljack's going to be so upset._ Demolishor thought grimly, wresting his optics away from Soundwave to look at Megatron, whose temper seemed to be cooling off somewhat, and his destruction of the tropical training room slowing down.

Soundwave also turned his head to look at their leader.

Megatron straightened. He had just finished punching a large palm tree until it had been reduced to a pile of green and brown splinters and pulp, and felt marginally better. But it didn't bring him any closer to finding the Autobots base. Already they had razed two, no, this latest report made it three, Elaran Military bases to the ground, and there had been no sign of the Autobots anywhere!

For a fleeting moment, the Decepticon warlord entertained the notion that perhaps… perhaps he could have been mistaken. Maybe they _weren't_ in Elara at all. Perhaps they had settled in Karga, or on one of the islands Archipelago. They just might be hiding on an island in the very area where he himself had his base. Were they neighbours? Megatron almost snickered at the thought. No, Prime wasn't _that_ stupid. Even Demolishor wasn't that stupid…

It was at this point that Megatron remembered that Demolishor was in the room. As was Soundwave. He turned.

"Hmmm," He said quietly, walking past them and out of the room.

Giving each other a quick glance, Soundwave and Demolishor walked out after him.

"We may have to put more thought on the way we handle these Elaran Humans." Megatron said as he walked down the hallway. "They are well defended. The Insecticons would have been destroyed in the last attack if they weren't so talented in retreat."

It was shameful for any number of Decepticons to be good at retreating, and it seemed even more so when Megatron admitted it. They shouldn't have to be good at it. They shouldn't have to retreat at all! The Autobots should all be dead by now, and he should be sitting on a throne, ruling all of Cybertron, and a good portion of the rest of the Universe as well. Embarrassing.

Once Megatron decided that he had said enough, the three of them walked in silence. Soundwave had taken to looking at Demolishor again, despite Rumble and Frenzy's demands that he stop it before they eject and make him. No one would hear them except Soundwave unless they did as they threatened and ejected. He was quite glad for this little comfort; he would never have had a private moment if their voices could be heard. But he knew that the threat was empty. They would never eject without his permission.

After a short while, they passed Wheeljack in the hall. He stepped to one side and saluted smartly as Megatron walked past, to which he received a sharp nod as a reply.

Demolishor watched things like this very carefully. By now, he had learned just what each subtle expression on the black mech's face meant, and when he saw Wheeljack's expression change, he grimaced, and wished that it had been one of the subtle ones. Wheeljack's blue optics had become very wide and he was staring at Megatron's hands as he walked past.

_He had seen the green stains on Megatron's knuckles._

Rarely do you see a mech who looked so perfectly petrified.

Demolishor let out a soft, sympathetic sigh and stopped. He reached a hand out, and gently brushed Wheeljack's arm with his gun fingers. It was a strangely gentle gesture for a Decepticon to give, Soundwave noticed. But Demolishor was strange in the way he operated. He was as kind to his comrades as he was loyal to Megatron.

Granted, there were different _degrees_ to the kindness that he displayed; Cyclonus and Wheeljack seemed to receive the greater ones.

Wheeljack turned to look at Demolishor, the look not leaving his face. He opened his mouth as if to ask, but he couldn't make noise come out of it. Demolishor bit his bottom lip, and looked at Soundwave, who sent a slow, mute nod in Wheeljack's direction. Rumble and Frenzy started making gagging noises.

If it were possible, Wheeljack's expression worsened, before he bolted down the corridor in the direction of what used to be a little rainforest inside the base.

Soundwave and Demolishor stood still, looking down the corridor after him. After about three minutes, Soundwave's sharp hearing picked up the faint sound of a sob. He turned and looked at Demolishor, who sighed, before the two of them continued down the hall.

- - -

Chasidy was fuming.

Despite being conscious, and practically fine, Red Alert was refusing to let her out of the med bay. When she objected, Red Alert simply looked at Optimus Prime, who gave the young pilot a look that said, "do as you're told". So, she had grudgingly remained in the bay for a further three days.

She didn't get lonely during those three days; Lots of people were always coming in to see her, and there were other humans that were hurt getting transferred in from other bases around Elara that showed up. Still, she wanted to go home to her apartment.

Just when the girl thought she was going to go insane, the large door at the end of the room opened, and a blue Autobot came in, his light blue optics looking around.

"Sideswipe!" She said happily, waving at him.

Sideswipe spotted her and smiled, before walking over to her and kneeling down beside her bed.

"Hey Chas! How are you?" The young Autobot asked, grinning.

Chasidy began to pout. "I think I might just go crazy 'Swipes." She said. "I don't have any more than scars now, but Red Alert _still_ won't let me leave!"

Sideswipe smiled.

"Well, you'll be happy to see this then," He said, pointing towards the door as Red Alert walked in.

Chasidy stared at the Autobot medic, and started muttering, "Pleasepleasepleaseplease…"

Red Alert strode over and looked down at the Pilot. He smiled.

"Yes Chasidy." He said, restraining a laugh. "You're free to go."

Chasidy threw her arms into the air above her head. "_Yeeessss!_" She said happily.

Red Alert turned to Sideswipe. "Can you take it from here Sideswipe?"

"Yes, I think I can manage." Sideswipe answered, the glow from his optics flickering upward for a short moment.

Chasidy looked up at the two mechs. "Huh?"

They didn't seem to have heard her.

"Make sure that you don't make any more noise as you leave," Red Alert said as he turned towards the door. "This _is _a hospital, and there are still people recovering here."

"Yes sir."

Chasidy and Sideswipe watched quietly as Red Alert left the room.

After the door had slid shut behind the medic, Chasidy looked up at Sideswipe.

"What did he mean by that?" She asked.

Sideswipe looked down at her with the largest grin she had ever seen.

"I'm really excited Chas!" He said, struggling to keep his voice low. "I'm really, really excited!"

Before the pilot could utter another 'huh?' at the young Autobot, he reached into his subspace pocket and pulled out a small package, which he promptly handed to her.

"Here." He said, still grinning broadly. "Optimus told me to give this to you. You should put it on; make sure it fits before we get going."

Chasidy questioned the young mech with her gaze, before tearing open the paper wrapping of the parcel.

She stared at it as it sat in her lap.

Sideswipe looked down at the human worriedly. "Is something wrong?"

"It's a uniform…" She said quietly. "A weird version of my uniform…"

Sideswipe smiled. "Not weird, special. Commander Bane had it specially made, just for you."

"Why?"

Sideswipe's smile grew. "You'll have to wait and see."

Chasidy's pout made the young Autobot giggle.

"Come on."

- - -

It was a further twenty minutes before Sideswipe had wandered out of the med bay with the pilot sitting on his shoulder. She had wanted to try on the uniform, and view herself in a mirror for a short while before she was satisfied with it. Really, Sideswipe had thought, Humans could be quite vain.

But then, finally, she had let him place her on his shoulder, and the two of them left the med bay and wandered off into the base.

Chasidy noticed quite a few things while she rode on Sideswipe's shoulder. Mainly, that the other personnel that they passed would stare at her, and then whisper amongst themselves. She knew it had something to do with her new uniform, but it didn't look _that_ different from the standard pilot uniform. What were a new shoulder pad, a different top, and a new pair of boots in the scheme of things really? But why, why did they look at her with such awe? Was it because she was sitting on an Autobot's shoulder?

She sighed. Unless she somehow acquired the ability to read minds, like the fabled Espers of long ago, she was doomed to speculate.

"Ignore them Chas." Sideswipe said, turning his head slightly towards her.

She turned to look at him. "Did I say something and not realise it?"

Sideswipe chuckled. "No, but the way they look at you, and the way that you look back and after them… it's not hard to figure out what you're thinking."

Chasidy's jaw sagged open. "Where did you get so good at that?" She asked.

Sideswipe gave a half-shrug as a reply, moving only one of his shoulders, so not to dislodge the pilot.

"It's just a thing I do. It's part of the reason I'm so good with codes." He paused and broke into a grin. "Also… I suspect it's why Optimus chose me for this."

Before Chasidy could open her mouth, Sideswipe came to a stop. "Here we are."

Chasidy followed Sideswipe's gaze to the large door that they were now standing in front of. In large red letters, the words 'Warp Room: Authorized Personnel ONLY' were written.

_Warp Room?_ Chasidy thought, looking at the text. _What the hell is a Warp Room?_

Seemingly ignoring Chasidy's puzzled look, Sideswipe reached over and knocked four times on the metal door.

After forty-three seconds, it slid open.

"Oh good, you're here."

Both Chasidy and Sideswipe gave a brief salute.

"Hello Optimus sir." Chasidy said, not in the least surprised that he was here.

Optimus nodded and withdrew into the room, motioning for them to follow.

On the whole, Chasidy had expected something a little more… impressive.

The warp room contained nothing more than a computer on one side, a very large screen on the other side, and on the wall opposite the door there was some sort of glowing apparatus, and that was it. Well, at least that was all she figured was usually in here. The red mech sitting against the wall near the computer was certainly not part of the room's interior.

Suddenly, Optimus' voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"I presume you proceeded as instructed?" He said, looking at Sideswipe.

"Yes sir."

"Good." The Autobot Commander looked at Chasidy. "Glad to be out of the hospital?" he asked.

"Yes sir…" Chasidy said quietly, still looking at the mech near the wall. "But at least there I wasn't hopelessly confused. What is Raven doing here?"

Optimus turned to look at the Blood Raven behind him for a moment before looking back at Chasidy.

"Because he needs to be, just like you."

"For _what_?"

Before Optimus could answer, the door hissed open, and Commander Bane, and another Human walked in.

"Commander!" Chasidy exclaimed, before her eyes clicked over to the other man. He was tall, and had dark blue-grey hair and dark blue eyes, and a very kind looking face. He only looked to be four, maybe five years older than Chasidy was.

"You brought a friend, Bane?" Optimus said, also looking at the young man.

Bane grinned. "Not just any friend Prime. This lad's name is Towkarn Cuthulion. My Vice Commander?"

"_He's _the Vice Commander!" Sideswipe and Chasidy exclaimed together.

Towkarn chuckled. "Nice to meet you too." He said, looking up at Chasidy. "You're Chasidy Rhoads, right?"

"Y-yes sir…" The pilot replied, stunned that such a young man could have such a high rank.

Optimus sighed. Really, it was getting to be too much.

"Your second and third know about this whole thing Prime. That means Autobot contribution is, including you, four. Where as Elaran contribution, including myself, is two –"

"I don't know what's going on." Chasidy interrupted.

"– So, I'm just evening things out a touch." Bane finished, giving Chasidy a bit of a glare, to which she recoiled.

"Commander," Towkarn said, looking at the shorter man beside him. "What about that?" He pointed at the Blood Raven.

Bane stared at the red and black mech for a few seconds before looking up at Optimus again. "Ah yes. And there's _that_. So that makes us even then."

Optimus sighed.

"Excuse me," Chasidy said, standing up. "Not to be rude, but can someone tell me what in the name of the Dark Companion is going on?"

Optimus looked at Bane, who spun around and pushed a button on the wall, and the door slid shut.

"Chasidy," Optimus said quietly, looking at the pilot, who still stood on Sideswipe's shoulder. "As you are probably aware, I have done my best to keep the Autobots and the Elaran forces separate. I had thought that you would be safer if you did not confront the Decepticons. By not interfering in your battles with the Aggendi, and keeping you out of our war, I had thought everyone would be better off. However…"

Chasidy frowned. "…The Decepticons don't believe in keeping others out of their war, do they?"

"No. Several Elaran bases have been attacked and three have been destroyed by Decepticons over the last few months. Megatron must be looking for us."

"Only three soldiers at each base in Elara know where this compound is." Bane added. "So it isn't common knowledge where we are. That's why he's blindly attacking our other bases. We can't evacuate all the personnel to here, because then the Aggendi will attack the Elaran Arcologies. They're built solid, but they'll come tumbling down in a continued assault from Aggendi Mektons."

"I can't let the war continue on this way." Optimus continued. "So, I decided it's time to intervene."

"And how do you plan on intervening?" Towkarn asked.

"I have a plan, and we're here now to find out if it will work."

"How are we involved?" Chasidy asked.

Before Optimus could reply, the glow coming from the far end of the room intensified.

"Oh they're here."

As Chasidy and the others looked on, four shapes burst out of the wall, only white outlines at first, but then four blobs of colour came out and joined the lines. In the space of a few seconds, four large metal things had appeared out of the wall.

"Gaahhh!" Chasidy screamed pointing at the closest one, which was some sort of lizard, with large back legs, short little arms and sharp teeth. "What the hell is _that?_"

The thing turned its head to look at the pilot. "Me Grimlock!" It said proudly.

"What's a Grimlock?"

Sideswipe snickered.

"Nice to see that you have all arrived safely." Optimus said, looking at Grimlock.

"Me Slag _hate_ warping." One of the others said.

"Slag hate everything!" said another.

Optimus smiled to himself. They hadn't changed a bit.

"Yes, well," He said sternly. "Transform, Dinobots."

The group stopped arguing and looked at Prime. They stared at him for a few seconds, as if what he was asking was utterly ridiculous, before transforming into four tall Autobots.

"Grimlock, Slag, Swoop, Sludge, Welcome to Algol."

* * *

Mekton Zeta Dictionary - 

Dark Companion:

The Dark Companion is one of the four suns in the Algol System. It is dim, and almost completly burnt out.

Arcologies:

Arcologies are the structures that house Algolian cities. They contain residental, industrial and comercial areas, as well as parks and other such facilities. A single Arcology strucutre can house hundreds of thousands of people, and protect them in the most efficiant way. Any other kind of city could be leveled within minutes by a Mekton Squadren. Most of Algol's population lives within an Arcology structure.

...Because only about three other people would know what I'm talking about. The Role Play is open! For some reason the URL won't stay the way I want it, so, here it is in parts:

http / mzonline . proboards26 . com

Take out the spaces and you'll be fine. Hope to see you here!


	8. Farewell our Comrade

_The Dinobots, huh?_ Chasidy thought to herself. _How interesting._

She turned her head and looked at Bane and Towkarn who were still standing on the floor. Bane looked as indifferent as ever, but Towkarn looked distinctly surprised. It was a relief to see that she wasn't the only one who didn't know the details of what was going on.

"Grimlock," Optimus said, turning to look at the mech in question. "This is Sideswipe. He will be your group's contact in the base when you are out in the field." Optimus gestured towards the young mech.

Grimlock frowned and moved to stand directly in front of Sideswipe, who seemed to shrink a little under the taller Autobot's stare.  
"Him young. Prime sure he good for job?" Grimlock said, turning his head to look at his leader.  
"Sideswipe is very intelligent, and is a very capable codebreaker. He will do just fine." Optimus said flatly.  
Grimlock made a growling noise and looked back at Sideswipe. He stared at the blue mech for about a minute, before noticing the human still clinging to his shoulder.

"What this Human for?" He asked, pointing at her.  
"Hey!" Chasidy snapped.  
"Chasidy is going to be part of this group as well. She will fight alongside you and the others." Optimus said hastily, not giving Chasidy the chance to aggravate Grimlock. That was the _last_ thing he needed.  
"Prime kidding!" Grimlock roared.  
"Certainly not."

"How…" Said one of the others. "How does human fight?"

Grimlock looked at Prime, and could have sworn he saw triumph in his leader's optics.  
"With that."  
He gestured towards the red and black mech sitting against the wall. As the Dinobots stared at it, Chasidy couldn't help but feel a little smug.  
One of the other Dinobots, Swoop, slunk over and knelt down to have a closer look. "What _is_ it?" he asked, looking up at Optimus.  
"It's called a Mekton." Chasidy said, before anyone else could. "This is the Blood Raven. Stay on his good side, and you'll be fine, dino-boy."  
Swoop looked at the pilot with a confused look on his faceplate, before looking back at Raven.

"The Blood Raven has intelligence." Optimus said, deciding that elaboration was needed. "Possibly even sentience. We don't know the full extent of his abilities, but –"  
"Prime want us to fight with this thing?" Grimlock asked in disbelief.  
"Why is it not moving?" Swoop asked. "If it smart, why don't it move?"  
"It can't." Optimus said, taking Chasidy off Sideswipe's shoulder and walking over to where the red mech had been placed. "Not on it's own any way." He held the pilot close to the cockpit, which automatically opened as she came near.  
Without a word Chasidy jumped inside, and the cockpit shut behind her.

The Dinobots stared at it expectantly, but nothing happened. There was about thirty seconds of awkward silence before –  
"Pardon me, but you're in my personal space."  
Swoop fell backwards in surprise and landed on the floor as the red and black mech's optics flashed on and it sat up and looked around.  
"Well, aren't there a lot of people around today?" He said, picking himself up. "Why was I on the floor?"  
Optimus smiled to himself. Yes, this could work.

"Blood Raven, these are the Dinobots; Swoop, Slag, Sludge and Grimlock." He said, pointing each of the separate mechs out.  
"Hi." Raven said, giving them a hearty wave, before spotting Sideswipe standing near the far wall. "What about that guy over there?"  
"That's Sideswipe. He will be providing contact with the base while you and the Dinobots are fighting. The six of you, seven if you include your pilot, will be the first amalgamated Autobot and Elaran Squadron. If combining the two forces in this way proves effective, more groups will follow."  
Raven looked over at the Dinobots again, all of whom seemed to be in a daze at this point, before stretching his arms above his head.  
"Right." He said boredly. "So you want me to protect the metal Gunfark brothers?"  
Optimus winced.

"Me Grimlock no need protecting!" Grimlock shouted, stepping forwards. "Me Grimlock will need to protect you!"  
Optimus groaned quietly. He had been hoping that Raven would be smart enough not to bait Grimlock. As well as having a sensitive trigger for his temper, the leader of the Dinobots was very powerful, so he could easily back up his threats.

Raven laughed loudly, taking both Grimlock and Optimus by surprise. "Tell you what. Seeing as we've been lumped together for the duration, how about we protect each other?" He suggested, reaching out his hand. "Hell only knows when we'll be needing the help."

The Dinobots stared at Raven in stunned silence. Optimus could have wept with joy. Didn't, but he could have. The Dinobots in stunned silence. Who'd have thought it was possible? Besides, now that they were here, he figured this was the last silence he was ever going to get.  
Slowly, Grimlock reached out and took Raven's hand.

"Me Grimlock no loose to you." The taller mech said quietly. "Me Grimlock never loose."  
Raven chuckled as they let go. "You're on Algol now, my friend." He said, his face radiating a sly smile. "It's a whole new game."

- - -

Skywarp was not the quiet type. Indeed, he was the very loud, very irritating type. He pulled pranks on his comrades, laughed out loud in battle, and couldn't sit still for more then three minutes. It was no wonder he liked to spend time with Cyclonus, who was just as insane as he was, if not more so.

But now, Skywarp was quiet. And the other Decepticons were beginning to worry, because he had been quiet and still for about an hour now.

"Hey, 'Warp, you alright?" Cyclonus asked, sitting next to his constant companion.  
"Yeah." Came the reply.  
Cyclonus frowned. "You don't sound alright." He huffed. "Tell me what's wrong."  
"Cyclonus!"  
The helicopter recoiled.  
Skywarp sighed. "It's nothing Cyc'. I'm just… thinking."

Cyclonus shuffled closer to his friend and leaned forwards. "About him, you mean."  
Skywarp's head snapped up. "How…?"  
"You're cuddling the biggest bit of him we ever found. Somehow, I know."  
Skywarp looked down. He had forgotten about the piece of red metal that he was holding, but he didn't know how he ended up clutching it to his chest.

Soon after they had arrived on Algol, his brother had been sent to figure out what the shimmering dome around the small continent of Muria was. Turns out, it was a barrier that had been set up to protect Muria during one of the many civil wars that had shaken Algol over the years. But of course, Starscream took the headfirst approach to examination. The last anyone ever heard of him was an electric crackling, a familiar scream, and then dead silence. The small part of his wing, no bigger than Skywarp's hand, was the only piece they could find.

"Ahhh…" Cyclonus breathed, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. "It's weird…"  
"What is?" Skywarp asked, looking at the berserker curiously.  
"That _that's_ all we ever found." The copter answered, pointing at the piece of metal in Skywarp's hands. "I've seen other things come in contact with the Murian Barrier, and they never ended up quite so vaporized."  
"What's your point?"

"My point Skywarp is that the Barrier wouldn't… _couldn't_ have vaporised him. There are only two things that could have happened. Either the bastard is _alive_… or…"

"…Or…" Skywarp continued. "Someone _else_ found Starscream first…"

- - -

As expected, the next few days were anything but quiet. The Dinobots were determined to make their presence known, and had gotten themselves into fights with some of the other Autobots, soldiers who were equally as headstrong. Optimus had broken up several involving Slag and Hot Shot, and even more involving Grimlock and Jetfire. He wasn't the only one breaking up fights either. A few of the Elaran pilots had used their Mektons to pull Sludge and Sunstreaker away from each other when a violent altercation broke out. Bane had given the pilots large bonuses for the effort.

Surprisingly though, the one mech the Dinobots had not fought with was the Blood Raven. He was active more and more, and was often at the scene of a fight, simply observing rather than getting involved. And he found it all rather amusing. Half the time you'd hear him laugh before you heard anything else.  
It was on one of these occasions, when something unexpected happened.

It was a particularly violent incident; Jetfire and Hot Shot had yet again gotten on the bad side of Grimlock and Slag, and were tumbling about on the floor, trying to beat each other to a shiny metal pulp. Raven was sitting against a wall, watching and snickering to himself.

At the point where Grimlock had his powerful arms around Hot Shot's neck, and Slag was attempting to pull Jetfire's arm out of its socket, Raven stood up. Something felt strange.

_**-Hello? Can you hear me? Am I coming through?-**_

Raven frowned. Grimlock and Slag froze. They looked over at Raven.  
"You hear that?" Slag asked.  
"I heard it." Raven said. "What was it though?"  
Hot Shot and Jetfire looked at each other. They hadn't heard anything at all.

_**-Again, Grimlock, Slag, Swoop, Sludge, Blood Raven, am I coming through? It's Sideswipe. I'm testing the new communications equipment for our group. It's on a special encoded frequency, so you probably won't be able to reply just yet. If you can hear me, come to storage room 29D on the third floor. I'm waiting for you all there.-**_

Raven and the Dinobots looked at each other.

"Alright then." Raven huffed, putting his arms behind his head and walking off. Grimlock and Slag let go of the other two Autobots and walked after him, leaving a very confused Jetfire and Hot Shot sitting on the floor.

- - -

"Skywarp, no."

"Please Megatron!"

Megatron growled, causing the purple seeker to recoil. Skywarp swallowed and continued.  
"Megatron, please, I beg you, let me look for him!"  
"To what point?" Megatron snapped. "We searched the seas and islands surrounding Muria for months for Starscream's shell, and all we found was that fragment of his wing that you keep so fondly. Renewing the search would prove useless."

"The Autobots were in the area that day." Skywarp pressed. "There is no way that Starscream was destroyed by that barrier; The Autobots must have taken him!"  
"I highly doubt it."  
"How could you be so sure?" Skywarp shouted, forgetting whom he was talking to. "The Autobots are the only ones who would have any interest in keeping his body, no matter how fried up it was!"  
Megatron stood. "Skywarp, I have said no!"  
"The Autobots have Starscream!" Skywarp cried. "_Those bastards have my brother! HE'S ALL I'VE GOT!_"

"ENOUGH!!!"

Megatron's right arm snapped out and caught Skywarp's throat, and lifted him off the ground. The seeker squealed with surprise, but said nothing and did not move.  
"Now, you listen to me for once," Megatron hissed through gritted taste detectors, holding Skywarp at optic level. "The Autobots _do not _have Starscream's corpse! I have been fighting Prime for over four million years, and of all the things he is capable of, he is not, I repeat, he is NOT capable of something so morbid as stealing our dead!"  
Skywarp made a sort of whimpering sound, and Energon tears welled up in the corners of his optics. He choked back a sob and Megatron threw him to the floor in disgust. This is _exactly_ why Decepticons shouldn't have family.

"Pull yourself together. You're a Decepticon for Primus' sake." The warlord growled, taking a few steps away from Skywarp as he pulled himself into a sitting position.  
Skywarp rubbed at his face with the palm of his hand. The tears were almost invisible against his black faceplate, but that was hardly going to earn him any points with Megatron at this point. The seeker sat slumped over in the centre of Megatron's Throne Room, dejectedly waiting for the larger mech to rip his head off.

When, after a few minutes, it didn't come, Skywarp looked up. Megatron was standing a short distance away, looking thoughtful rather than angry.  
"Hmmm…" He mused, crossing his arms across his chest. "It is strange though…"  
Skywarp blinked in surprise.  
"Starscream isn't the type to vanish in such a way… dead or not."

Skywarp blinked again. Megatron _was_ agreeing with him! Skywarp watched in silence as Megatron stalked back to his throne and sat down.  
"Out." He ordered.  
Skywarp got to his feet and hastily headed for the door.  
"Oh, Skywarp?" Said a dark voice behind him as he reached the door.  
Skywarp turned around just in time for a blast to strike his side. It tore a deep gash in his armour and ripped off part of his wing. The seeker yelped, and desperately scrambled out of the room before bolting down the hallway. It would be a long time before he would have the courage to talk to his leader again.

Megatron sighed and shook his head. "Brothers…"

- - -

There were few things at the base that really got Optimus worried. The alarm that sounds when a city is being attacked normally isn't one of them. Only the Aggendi attacked cities, and they were usually pretty easy to handle. But the message that followed the alarm, the one that said in a loud voice _"All personnel clear Mech Bay One for Vagabond Deployment."_ gave it a little more meaning. The Autobot commander ran as fast as he could to the mech bay in question, and sped through the doors just in time to see Bane and Towkarn Cuthulion climbing into the mechanical behemoth known as the Vagabond.

"Bane!" Optimus shouted, slightly louder than he had intended. "What are you doing?"  
Bane turned his head and looked at Optimus with the smuggest look the Autobot had ever seen.  
"I'm going to teach those bastard aliens a lesson!" Bane said proudly. "And this is just the 'bot to do it!"

The Vagabond was definitely a powerful mech. It was large, larger than any other Mekton, and not just by height. Granted, it was about twenty feet taller than a standard Mekton, and had a specially built mech bay as a result, but most of its size came from the massive weapons which made up most of it's torso, and the fact that it was a quadruped mech, rather than the standard biped design certainly added a fair bit of weight to the mammoth mech. But because it was so massive, two people were needed inside to pilot it: one to control the mech's movements, the other to control the weapons.

It had only been used a few times, but it had proved to be very effective against Aggendi Mektons. Optimus had decided that it should only be used in special situations, because it was so hard to pilot.

Somehow, this didn't seem like a particularly special situation. Truly, it sounded like the same situation they faced every two days or so.

"But…" Optimus started to object, but Bane pushed his young Vice Commander into the dual cockpit, and shut the hatch behind him.  
Optimus growled, and ran to stand on the other side of the bay, between the Vagabond and the way out.  
"You know my orders concerning this mech Bane!" He shouted. "You could get yourself killed!"  
Bane's arrogant laugh echoed through the Vagabond's external speakers.

"No different to any other day then!" He said, his amplified voice echoing off the metal walls of the bay. "Out of the way Prime!"

The Vagabond thundered forward, each step making the entire bay shudder. Although he doubted that Bane would really run him over, when the Vagabond was much too close for his liking, Optimus jumped out of the way of the advancing behemoth, and could do little more than watch as it trolled along towards the location of the Aggendi attack.

"BANE!!" Optimus yelled.

_Forget it Prime._ Said a little voice in the Autobot's head. _You'd have better luck turning Blurr into a Decepticon._

Sometimes, Optimus really hated agreeing with that little voice. With an angry sigh, Optimus turned on his heel and ran from the Vagabond Bay, out into the base, and towards the Command Centre.  
When Grimlock, Slag and the Blood Raven reached the storage room that they were meeting at, they bumped into Swoop and Sludge as they too, headed for the storeroom.

"So, the kid got through to you two as well." Raven said.  
"Why we meet here?" Swoop asked, looking at the door curiously. "Communications room no anywhere near here."  
The other Dinobots shrugged.  
"Well, we're here now, so…" Raven trailed off as he reached towards the door, and rapped his metal knuckles against it.

The Dinobots and Raven waited for a short while, before Raven got impatient and yelled, "Hey, anyone in there?"  
The door slid open, and it was Red Alert who was standing behind it.  
"What are you yelling for?" The medic asked.  
"Uh…"

The medic sighed, and took a step back into the storeroom. "You're so impatient. Come on."  
Red Alert led the group into the room, and through the maze of stacks of crates, till they reached a large area at the back. While Red Alert continued moving forwards, Raven and the Dinobots froze when they saw what was sitting on the floor.  
"Sweet mother of Attikan!" Raven exclaimed.

What made the Blood Raven exclaim so, was Sideswipe, sitting on the floor next to a computer terminal, with several thick cables coming out of his arms, and one, even larger one, coming out of his back. Raven couldn't quite figure it out, but something seemed to have sucked out the young mech's colour; his brilliant blue and yellow armour had been dulled and diluted to a pale cyan and white.  
Sideswipe turned his head and looked at the congregation of stunned mechs.

"O/h, th/ere you /are." He said, with a creepily broken voice, which seemed to have an overlay of thick static.

"Sideswipe, I told you not to talk out loud." Red Alert scolded, kneeling next to the young Autobot and starting to work on something on the inside of his arm.  
"Sor/ry." He replied, before getting a glare from the medic.  
"What you doing to him?" Sludge asked, looking at Red Alert.

"I'm reconfiguring him to be your communications terminal." Red Alert answered calmly.  
"Why do it here? Surely there are better places to do it?" Raven pointed out with a frown.  
"Yes." Red Alert agreed. "Personally, I would rather carry out this operation in one of the medical or science bays. But Optimus asked that it happen here."

"Why?"

"Because it's a little more… private."  
The Dinobots looked at each other.  
"It/'s o/kay, reall/y." Sideswipe said, despite another glare from Red Alert. "Thi/s way is/ be/tte/r… fo/r every/on/e."  
"What's wrong with his voice?" Raven asked.  
"All the communications equipment that is now operating inside him is interfering with his vocal monitor. One everything is in and installed, that should go away."

_Good. It's really creepy._ Raven thought.

"If you working on Sideswipe, why we here?" Slag asked, folding his arms.  
"I need to install a comms component in all of you, so you can easily receive and send transmissions on your group's personal frequency." Red Alert replied, making one final connection before replacing the panel on Sideswipe's arm.

"So, Who wants to go first?"

Instantly, all four Dinobots pointed at the Blood Raven.  
"Wha?" He said, looking at them.  
He blinked several times, before letting out a deep sigh and stepping closer to Red Alert and Sideswipe. "Looks like I get to go first then." He said. "However,"  
"However?" Red Alert repeated.

"What is your knowledge of Mekton internals like?" The red mech asked, putting a lot of emphasis on the word 'Mekton', for reasons that the medic couldn't guess.  
"… Decent." The Autobot answered after a pause. "I have been working on this planet for a long time now. I've seen many Mektons come and go, and done repairs on a few of them. And, if you really must know, I helped reconfigure your cockpit."

"Did you now?"  
"Yes."  
"You bastard."

Before the medic could respond, the Blood Raven's fist swung round, and connected sharply with his chin. He stumbled backwards, before looking up at the taller mech in shock.  
"What…?" He started to ask.  
"'Don't poke it if you don't know what it does.' That is what my designer used to say to me. You Autobots seem to like poking whatever your arms will reach. Next time you find a mech lying in the desert, don't screw around with it."  
Raven gave Red Alert a very smug look, before thrusting his left arm in the medic's direction. Red Alert flinched, thinking he was going to get hit again, when he realised that the taller mech was offering his arm to him.

"You're going to want to install your comms equipment in this arm. I'm not a conventional mech, so all my components are in weird places. The majority of my comms equipment is here." Raven said dully, tapping the middle of his left forearm with his index finger. "Unless of course, you moved it when you screwed with my internals." He added.

Red Alert didn't say anything, and didn't move, for what seemed like a long time. But then, with a look of sheer determination, the medic nodded, and opened Raven's arm, before beginning to install the comms equipment.  
Only a short time later, Red Alert replaced the armour plating on Raven's arm.

"There." He said. "That's you done."

"That's it?" The taller mech asked, sceptically.  
"Yes, that's it. Compared to what I had to do to Sideswipe, this is a very quick operation." The medic said with something of a hurt smile, no doubt due to the dent his faceplate now sported, thanks to the temperamental red mech.  
"Oh, goody. " Raven said, shrugging.

Red Alert turned to look at the Dinobots and was about to ask which of them would like to go next, when an alert rung throughout the storeroom, and, apparently, the rest of the base as well.  
_"Dinobots and the Blood Raven, report to the Command Centre. Repeat, Dinobots and the Blood Raven report to the Command Centre!"_

The Autobots, by default, were looking up at the ceiling. For some reason, that's always where the speakers for the intercom were installed.  
Red Alert shifted his gaze to the Dinobots, who were still admiring the ceiling tiles.  
"That was Optimus' voice." He said, frowning. His commander sounded quite perturbed, and it took a lot to get Optimus perturbed. So, understandably, the medic was worried.

"Well then, we'd better get going then." Raven said, giving a fake disappointed shrug and striding towards the door. "You Dino-dudes will have to wait to get your comms upgraded. We, are needed!"

The red mech exited the room and shot down the hallway at a brisk jog, letting out an arrogant cackle as he did so, the sound making Red Alert shiver. Raven had sounded far too much like Cyclonus for his liking.  
Then, he noticed the Dinobots were still in the room. They had been summoned by Prime himself, and they were staring at the ceiling in some storage room?

"What are you four doing?!" The medic exclaimed, making all four Dinobots snap to attention and look at him where he crouched on the floor. "Get going!"  
The Dinobots looked at each other for a moment, before running after the Blood Raven.  
After the sounds of their footsteps faded away, the medic let out a sigh.

"H/ey, Red/ A/er/t?" Sideswipe said.

The medic looked over.

"Do y/ou thin/k you ca/n do/ som/ethin/g ab/out the/se ca/bles?" The young Autobot asked, smiling calmly. "Th/ey're hea/vy."

Sigh.

- - -

It didn't take Raven more than five minutes to reach the Command Centre. The Dinobots took six. They skidded to a stop just inside the room, and looked around, spotting Optimus standing near the intercom equipment, looking quite annoyed. They looked at him standing there for a few seconds, watching as he tapped his foot in impatience and irritation.  
Raven had only known the Autobot for a week now, but even he could tell that it would take a lot to piss him off that much.

"You called, Optimus?" He said, in an attempt to break the tension that was swiftly filling the room.

Optimus looked over at the somewhat stunned group near the door.  
"I'm afraid your first mission as a team is going to be different to what I had planed." He said, striding towards them, the agitated expression visible, even with the mask.

"How so?" Raven queried, trying to stay cheerful.  
"Bane," The red and blue Autobot growled. "Bane has taken a powerful artillery mech known as the Vagabond out to combat the Aggendi, against my orders. I want you five to go out there, and bring him back, preferably with the Vagabond in one piece."

The Dinobots muttered a few grumblings, but Raven straightened, his optics flickering strangely, something that, even in his current state of mind, Optimus noticed. He would have asked the red mech about it, had that mech not chosen that moment to shake his head and give a shrug.  
"Alright. Find the little red human. Not a problem." He said.

The Dinobots grumbled a little more.  
"Oh come on!" Raven said, turning his head to look at the disgruntled group. "You might even be able to fight someone!"  
The red mech considered adding 'that you can kill' to the end of his sentence, but, seeing as the oh-so-noble Autobot leader was standing eight feet away, he, wisely, decided against it.  
The notion of possible combat was, however, enough to motivate the Dinobots, and they dashed out of the room, ready to begin pursuit of the errant human commander.

There was a pause, and one set of footsteps could be heard returning. Sludge poked his head through the doorway.  
"Where did red human go to?" He asked.  
Raven did his best not to laugh out loud. Of course, that doesn't mean he succeeded.

Optimus frowned, and turned to look at a large map of Algol that had been projected onto the screen behind him. Raising one arm, the Autobot leader pointed sharply at one of the dots in the Elaran area.

"The Aggendi are attacking Kandar. That's where he is headed."

- - -

"Sir, are you quite sure?"

Bane shook his head. "Towkarn, you have asked me that twelve times since we left the base. Will you stop asking if I give you an answer for the thirteenth time?"  
The younger man sighed. "Optimus Prime sounded pretty angry at us… you."  
"Huuh." Bane scoffed. "Prime always sounds like that when talking to me."  
"Perhaps he wouldn't if you stopped doing things to annoy him." Towkarn retorted. "You don't seem to like the Supreme Commander much."

"I respect him as a warrior and a commander, and the guy is honest. But, he's afraid to take the initiative. And… he's a machine."  
"Isn't this a machine too?" He asked, patting the dashboard in front of him.  
"But we're the ones giving the orders."  
Towkarn smiled. "That's what's bugging you? That our Commander is a machine?"  
"Well, duh Tow."

Towkarn blinked. The Commander called him 'Tow'. That normally meant the conversation was over. Towkarn shook his head and leaned back in his chair.  
Commander Bane had shoved the younger man into the secondary pilot seat, where all the weapons controls were. Looking about him, he could see all the various things that the Vagabond could shell out. Laser-class weapons, Missile class weapons, and Gun-class weapons galore, as well as one Cybertronian weapon, which no member of the Elaran military had been trained to use. Towkarn really hoped that there would never be a use for that weapon; he was afraid of what it might do.

"I've got four blips on radar kid." Bane said suddenly, snapping the younger man out of his thoughts. "Aggendi signals. Get ready lad, we've arrived."

- - -

Blood Raven flew over the Elaran landscape at high speed. Swoop was flying behind him, and the other Dinobots were following on the ground below.

**_-You hear me okay?-_** Sideswipe asked through their intercom.

**_-Quite well, thankyou Sideswipe.-_** Raven replied. **_-Glad you sound normal through the COM…-_** He added.

Sideswipe chuckled in reply.

_**-How far from Kandar are we kiddo?-**_ Raven asked.

**_-About ten minutes away.-_** The Autobot answered. **_-Seeing as there's large mechs trouncing around the Arcology, you should be able to see it any moment now.-_**

Sure enough, when Raven looked up, he spotted four large shapes going at each other, and a fifth lying in a smouldering heap to one side.  
"Kick it into high gear boys!" Raven said aloud to the Dinobots. "We've got aliens to slag!"

- - -

Bane was having a ball. Although he wasn't the one working the weapons, he was having a ball. Towkarn would have admitted to the same feeling, despite himself. One Aggendi Mekton had already been destroyed, and two of the other three were already well on their way to meeting the same fate.

"This thing handles like a dream!" He laughed, watching another Aggendi mech fall to the ground in a charred heap. "Who knows why Prime didn't want us to use it!"  
The gargantuan mech turned around to face the last two, the pilots inside not noticing how oddly the Aggendi were moving.  
Towkarn took a pause to let the weapons cool a bit before they would continue laying it into them, and let his eyes drop to the radar in the dashboard in front of him. He blinked. They were not Mekton signals.

"Commander, we have unidentified Transformers heading this way." He said, glancing back at the older man.  
"Ah, Prime probably sent some of his men after us. Pay them no mind."

Towkarn frowned. Something just didn't feel right.

Suddenly, the console flashed red, and a window opened on the main screen, showing a tall, horned mech with red optics and the Decepticon insignia emblazoned on his chest and shoulders, sneering at them and readying his cannon.  
Tow's eyes went wide. "Sir!"  
"Xah!" Bane cursed turning the mech around. "These slimy bastards have Decepticon backup!"

On the other side of the battlefield, The Blood Raven and the Dinobots approached and moved to assist the Vagabond.  
"Bane you idiot!" Raven shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"  
The Dinobots didn't leave any comments; they headed straight for the two remaining Aggendi Mektons, and the Insecticons, who had just come over the rise.

"Goodbye, humans." They heard Megaron growl.

Before anyone could react, Megatron fired his Fusion Cannon. The blast tore through the air, and struck the Vagabond at its waist. The large mech tumbled to the ground, and a part of it caught fire.

Shaken but not badly hurt, Towkarn sat up and looked around. The entire cockpit was flashing red, and every screen had 'WARNING! WARNING! EVACUATE!' splayed across it.

"Sir?" He said worriedly, looking up at where the older man had been moments before.

His eyes widened. Bane was pinned to his chair by a large shard of metal that pierced his shoulder, and by a pile of debris on his legs.  
"Commander!" Tow cried, standing up and attempting to pull some of the metal of the man.  
"Tow…" Bane said quietly, causing the younger man to snap to attention. "Get your butt out of here lad."  
"But, Sir, you…"  
"I'm stuck. And I'm old. I've had lots of life. But you, you don't even have a girlfriend. Y'know, Chasidy would be good for you, even if she is a little younger than you are."  
Tow flushed and frowned, but continued to dig.  
"Towkarn, get out!" Bane yelled. "The Vagabond's fuel tank has been hit, and if it blows, we're both fried. You get at least you out."  
"I can't just leave you here! I'm not abandoning you!"  
Bane frowned, and with his good arm, grabbed Towkarn by the front of his shirt and yanked him forward.

"Now you listen to me!" He hissed, his face turning its trademark hue. "You get out of here and that's an order! There's nothing you can do for me kid. And even if I lived! Prime will kill me himself!"

"He would not! He's Optimus Prime for Attikan's sake!"  
Bane shook his head as the mess behind him started to spark. "There's no point kid. You'll take over as Elaran Commander. You'll be better for them then I was; you've got a level head. Now go on. Oh, and tell Prime…" The human Commander leaned forward as best he could and whispered something in Towkarn's ear, before pushing the young man back into his seat, and hitting the 'emergency eject' button on the dash. The top of the mech snapped open and Towkarn's half of the cockpit shot upward, leaving Bane behind.

Surprised by the sudden movement of the area around him, Towkarn grabbed his seat and held it tightly. The small section he had been ejected with deployed a parachute, and he drifted to the ground, quite some distance from the burning remains of the Vagabond.

Raven spotted the young man as he floated down, and dashed to catch him. Towkarn blinked in surprise when he found himself in the palm of the large red and black mech.

"Blood Raven!" He exclaimed.  
Raven was about to reply, when the remains of the Vagabond exploded in a brilliant flash of red and gold.  
"Commander!" Towkarn yelled, shielding his eyes from the light of the explosion.  
Raven felt a twinge inside him and looked down at Towkarn.

"B-bane was… still in there?!" He stuttered.  
Towkarn grimaced and looked down sadly, before nodding solemnly.  
A sharp spike of grief flooded the red mech's systems, stemming from the young girl inside him and he clutched his chest with his free hand.

"Ahhrg…" He hissed, his optics flickering. "Gotta… keep control…"

But the pilot's emotion was too much. Using the last bit of control he could muster, he placed Towkarn on the ground.  
"You've…. gotta get away from me kid…." He growled. "Get to the Dinobots… stay with them…"  
Tow saw the Raven's normally wine red optics glow black, before he shot towards the Decepticon leader, a deep, unnatural roar coming from his speakers.

Megatron turned just in time to see the Blood Raven shooting across the landscape towards him. He moved to point his cannon at the advancing mech, but the emotion fuelled mech darted from side to side, making aiming at him impossible. Raven pounced at Megatron, pinning him to the ground by his shoulders. The Decepticon looked up into the red mech's face and saw his black optics.

_This mech must be the one Cyclonus and Skywarp ran into the other day_… he thought.

Megatron's optics widened at a low guttural sound from the mech holding him down, and decided enough had been done today.  
"Withdraw!" He commanded, before warping out from underneath Raven and vanishing. The Dinobots had already nicely disposed of the Aggendi and the Insecticons were quick to follow their leader's order to retreat. With nothing else to vent the pilot's emotion on, Raven dropped to his knees and punched the ground as hard as he could, a quiet sob in Chasidy's voice coming out of his speakers.

- - -

Optimus Prime presided over Commander Bane's funeral a few days later. All the staff was there, including the Dinobots and all the other Autobots. Blood Raven was even there, standing propped up against the back wall, unmoving and lifeless, with his pilot standing a distance away, with the other Mekton pilots around her, sobbing quietly as Optimus spoke in a dull voice, his own sadness quite apparent.

"This is a war." He said finally. "The loss of life is inevitable, but always painful. We must never lose sight of what it is we are fighting for, or what Commander Bane has sacrificed himself for. It is our duty to try and defend life. Commander Bane completed his duty admirably."

Optimus saluted, and every other person in the room did the same.

"This is our final farewell to our comrade, Commander Bane."

- - -

After the funeral, Towkarn and Optimus met in the Autobot leader's office.

"You will be assuming command of the Elaran forces Towkarn." Optimus said, sitting behind the desk, which the young man was standing on.  
"I know sir. That's what Commander Bane said too. I hadn't really thought of what would happen if he should die, but, it seems like that is what you both had planned."  
Optimus nodded.

"He did want you to succeed him. He could see your merit… so can I. The Elaran soldiers and pilots respect you. They'll respect you as a Commander too."  
There was a pause, then Towkarn stepped closer to the tall Autobot and looked at his face.

"Optimus," He said quietly. "Before he died, Commander Bane said something that he wanted to tell you."  
Optimus blinked. "What?"

"He wanted me to say, 'I have no regrets.'"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Well, after goodness knows how long, here is the next chapter. And lo, the first death of the story! Farewell Bane. Done for two reasons; 1) to make Towkarn the Commander, to better relate to the game, and 2) because people seemed to dislkike Bane. He was fun to write about though.

Sorry it took so long to get this up, but it was hard to figure out the bet way to kill Bane off, seeing as that is what I had planned for the end of this chapter.

till chapter 9, Ja Ne!


End file.
